[Captions are automated and may contain errors]
Adrienne N. Breitfelder, City Clerk you are hereby directed to call a regular session of the City Council to be held on Monday, August 17th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. in the historic Federal Building for the purpose of conducting such business that may properly come before the City Council. Thank you.
Good evening, and welcome to a regular session of the Dubuque City Council for August 17th, 2026. As a reminder to our participants, you can provide in-person input or virtual audio and written input during the sections of the agenda where public input is accepted. Input options during the live meeting include.
In-person attendees may approach the podium when the mayor asks if there is any public input on the item they would like to speak to, remote attendees can log in to go to meeting using the login links, phone numbers, and access code that appear on the broadcast and live stream and posted on the front page of the meeting agenda. This option includes audio input and written chat input.
If you are participating via computer, indicate which item you would like to speak to in the chat function, or note that you would like to speak during the appropriate section. If you are participating via phone, indicate which item you would like to speak to during the appropriate section.
All comments, whether in-person or virtual, must be accompanied by a name and address. Additionally, written public input is accepted by contacting the City Council directly from the city's webpage at.
Dubuque. And through the City Clerk's office. Email at clerk at City of Dubuque. This information will be reiterated during the meeting. Attendance for the session is as follows. Mayor. Cavanaugh. Council members. Leyendecker. Here. Reznik. Here. Roussel. Here. Here. Staver here. City manager van Milligan here. And city attorney. Bromwell here. Thank you, Mayor Cavanaugh.
I'll turn it over to you for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Adrian. I invite all who are able to please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Our proclamation this evening is Nathaniel and Charlotte Morgan. Peace week. I believe we have members of the Nathaniel Morgan Memorial Committee here to accept this proclamation. If you'd like to say a few words first, come on up and say hello, and then I can read the proclamation.
My name is Ernestine Moss, and I'm co-chair of the Daniel Morgan Memorial Committee, along with Brian Hostos. Solo, everyone, thank you so much. We're very excited about where we're at in this process with the memorial and really grateful to to all of you. Thank you. Adrian, for the work you've had in setting this up.
And thank you, mayor, for reading over multiple drafts. And thank you all council members, for kind of supporting these efforts. We're generating some momentum. We've been at this since 2018, and we have good momentum going now and have a wonderful artist who I think is going to help us realize a real beautiful vision.
So thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you very much for being here to accept this proclamation again this year. You have been doing some great work and it's great to see so much momentum. So I'm really glad you're here tonight. City Dubuque proclamation.
Whereas the city of Dubuque and local historians have committed to uncovering the history of all Dubuque in an effort to tell a more complete story of Dubuque. And Whereas Nathaniel and Charlotte Morgan were among the pioneers of Dubuque and contributed to its growth by working hard, purchasing the first platted lot, lot one, owning a home supporting Dubuque First Protestant Church, and persevering in the face of racism as African Americans
in a community that practiced slavery. And whereas, the lynching of Nathaniel Morgan and the subsequent pardoning of the lynchings undermined the potential for interracial unity and peace. And Whereas members of the Nathaniel Morgan Memorial Committee believe that confronting our past injustice leads to learning, teaching, and building an equitable and diverse community.
And whereas the members of the NMS have worked, have, after an extensive national search, hired artist James Dean to complete a large public artwork and honor to honor the lives of Nathaniel and Charlotte Morgan on the grounds of the future Dubuque Museum of Art campus.
And whereas Dubuque is increasingly make a concerted effort in the face of ignorance and difference and racism to build an equitable and diverse community that honors the faith, aspirations, and perseverance of our earliest black residents. And Whereas the NMDC and other Dubuque residents maintain that in life, Nathaniel and Charlotte Morgan represented the promise of a unified and peaceful interracial community.
And Whereas the NMS will celebrate this rekindled promise of unity and peace in a public memorial service on September 6th at 6 p.m. at Mount Carmel. Now, therefore, Ibrahim Cavanaugh, mayor of the City of Dubuque, Iowa, on behalf of the city council staff and residents of Dubuque, do hereby proclaim the first week of September as Nathaniel
and Charlotte Morgan Peace Week.
Come on up.
We will now move on to consent items. At this time, anyone participating in the meeting in person who would like to discuss one of the consent items, please approach the podium when the mayor asks if there is any in-person input, and state your name and address for all remote attendees, please have to your name and address
in the chat function, or state your name and address over the phone. When the mayor asks if there is any virtual input. If more than one participant would like to speak, then city staff will determine the speaking order of the participants.
Please state the item you would like remove from the consent agenda for separate discussion and consideration and consent items can be found on pages two through five of the agenda. All right. Is there anyone here who would like to remove any of the consent items for sep Please come on up. And if you could just name your name, address and then the item that you'd like to discuss.
I live at one 1923, and I would like to consent. Number two. Consent. Number two. Okay. All right. Thank you. You said Austin, right? All right. Thank you very much, Austin. I'll call you back up here in a moment, okay? Anyone else? All right. Back to us, then. For any other items, Mister spring number five. Five.
Anyone else, Mr. mayor? Mr. president, I move to receive and file the documents, adopt the resolutions and deal with the consent items as recommended. Except for number two and number five. Second, by. A motion by resident and a second by Wessel. Adrian, call the roll, please. I Staver. I. I Resnick, I Leyendecker. Kavanaugh. Roussel.
A motion passes seven zero. Let's take number two first. I need a motion. Please put this on the table, Mr. Mayor. Mr. spring. I motion that we discuss item number two. Okay. There is a suggested disposition. Would you care to have. That receive and file and refer to the city attorney? Second.
I've got a motion by and a second by residents receive and file and refer to the city attorney Austin, this is your opportunity to to say what you'd like to discuss about this particular item. So you can come on back up to the podium there.
And then just make sure you're right in the mic there so we can all hear you. Good evening. Mayor of the City Council. My name is Austin. I'm here tonight because my vehicle was damaged during a police raid at my neighbor's house.
I want to make it clear that I was not involved in the situation that led to the raid. I was inside my own home, was asleep when this was happening. I had nothing to do with it or anything to do with my neighbor's house. Yet my property was damaged. I was all the police operation.
The name was in the crosshairs of $3,310, and in that causes, I did not participate in an incident, and I. I had no opportunity to prevent what happened. I understand police officers have a difficult job, and that sometimes they have to take action to protect the public and enforce the law. I'm not here to blame the officers or argue about why they took place.
I'm asking the city to recognize that the that incident should not be left to pay thousands of dollars for damage that could, during the operation. That had nothing to do with them. I was simply at home asleep when this happened, and I woke up to find my car was damaged. Okay. All right. Austin, thank you very much for your comments.
We do appreciate hearing from you. We have any discussion on this item.
All right. Thank you very much. That will be entered into the record. Just so you know that your comments will be there. We appreciate you being here to provide those. Okay. Motion here on this item number two is to receive and file refer to the city attorney. Adrian, call the roll, please. I Staver. Wetzel I Resnick. Leyendecker.
Kavanaugh. Roussel. I that motion passes seven zero. Next up is number five. Take a motion here, please. Mr. Mayor. Mr. spring, I motion that we receive and file and approve. Second by. Got a motion and a second by Mr. Spring.
Yeah I this is the program which I'm involved with is basically we're looking at all of our parks of course. And in this and in that document discusses, of course, Eagle point Park and there's a plan to do work on it. There's also the city manager sent us an email around 1246 today.
And there's a document, Mike, would you be willing to read that the one your memo that's.
It's the word document memo about the conditions, about all what's going on at Eagle Point Park, because it kind of ties into the whole project.
Please go ahead. So this is a memo from Parks and Recreation Director Matt Calcium dated today, says this memo is to provide information related to evolving projects and improvements at Eagle Point Park and the actions being taken and planned for the continued effort to improve access and to the quality of activity at the park.
Eagle Point Park continues to be a topic of discussion in the community and amongst Parks and Recreation Department staff. It's one of the largest parks managed by Dubuque Park and Recreation. It includes an extensive and diverse list of responsibilities and tasks on a daily, weekly and annual basis.
Currently, Eagle Point is one of only three parks, the others being the B branch and the staff that rotates between Flora and Murphy, where staff are assigned directly to that location for its care. With two full time staff and three available temporary positions during the summer, some of whom end their service around the middle of August.
But we attempt to have them commit through October available to support the care of the park. There are some challenges keeping up with this very healthy and complicated system of features and spaces. The remaining more than 50 plus parks in the city are maintained by the other members of the parks maintenance team, made up of nine other full time staff and several temporary positions.
On February 16th, 2026, the City Council approved and adopted the Dubuque Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Master Plan. As a result, Eagle Point Park was reclassified as a regional park. This signified that it was a space that could be considered for future additional support.
Because of the complex nature of its layout, and its reputation is not just a place for residents, but those from around the Tri-State area and beyond. Much work has happened in the first half of the summer, with the addition of a second full time staff member.
Going into this season, activity continues to be high, with regular rentals of facilities and other traditional daily activities that fill the capacity of staff. In the fall of 2025, Parks and recreation staff combined with public works to perform multiple projects, and those included repairs and replacement of one sidewalk and repairs of the asphalt parking lots and roads, the removal of some trees and stumps located near the road,
and to open better access to several features of the park, including some open air shelters. Volunteers helped with the cleanup in several locations of the park. This included branches, trash, and pulling weeds. A significant number of other projects are currently either actively being worked on, or in preparation to begin the work in the near future.
Funding has been dedicated by City Council to most of these items. Tennis court renovations $302,000. This project will focus on crack sealing and resurfacing of the courts. The estimated amount of this project is activated, a process to hire an engineering firm to identify the specifications for the work.
We are pursuing an opportunity of partnership with the United States Tennis Association and our local representative to access services they provide to partners like us for such technical support. If that does not produce the right connection, we will administer our regular process for soliciting soliciting support from a qualified firm. Eagle Point Park Master Plan $165,000.
This is a direct action identified in the Dubuque Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Master Plan, and is the next major step in evaluating what the full scope of care at this park could look like, and strategies about how to support that effort. The development of an RFP or a request for proposals for this project is underway.
With the recent request for proposals, the Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan is a template. There is active discussion with staff about the scope of the work that will be requested. We will also invite other city departments to offer us perspective on that scope of work, with the final document then proceeding to City Council for approval that is targeted to be out by mid fall of 2026.
Tree trimming and bluff clearing. $114,000. An initial attempt to solicit services to provide clearing on the bluff was not successful. The outreach for finding the right contractor or partner is being expanded, and staff have reached out to other agencies for any referrals about if and how similar projects they have managed were supported and successful.
Some tree clearing was done recently along the bluff by the city forestry team, but the other work will require a contractor with the right equipment and manpower. Cyrus Pavilion renovation 97,000. There is need to address structural issues with the building as well as improved features of the space.
This project is targeted to happen during this off season while the park is closed. Stone work and truck tuck pointing $91,000. Several facilities and structures are in need of this kind of work. A single project is being set up to incorporate all of these into a request for proposals to be awarded, ideally to a single contractor.
This project is targeted to happen during this off season while the park is closed. The timing of this work may be impacted by the Jeffress grant process, which the city is pursuing to support the additional historic structure improvement currently being evaluated. Verandah room roof replacement $51,000 A terrace room roof replacement, which is $40,000.
These roof sustained damage and have been a challenge to address structurally due to the historic preservation status of the buildings and Eagle Point Park. Some additional items of review are also part of the scope. The timeline for this work is still pending. Sidewalk repairs $83,000. Several locations are in need of this kind of work.
A single project is being set up to incorporate all of these into a request for proposals to be awarded, ideally to a single contractor. This project is targeted to happen during this season while the park is closed. The Log cabin $71,000.
There is need to address some structural issues with the building, as well as improve some features of the space. More research is required to fully identify the scope of the work. That effort will be targeted for this off season while the park is closed.
This total list of investments in the park totals over $1 million and includes a tremendous amount of staff, time and work behind the scenes to prepare for these projects to happen and ensure they are done properly and with the most benefit to the park. In addition, there are several potential partnership opportunities efforts to include volunteer groups to expand support for the group for the park.
Staff are coordinating with the newly formed Friends of Dubuque Parks for an event on August 29th, as well as multiple other perspective groups that would help make an impact on overall care.
In addition to these projects, the parks division has started discussions about specific workdays at the park in the next few weeks to lend support to the full time staff to help reset spaces that have surpassed the capabilities of that team. There are also items being added to a list of work to be performed while the park is closed, as well as items to improve and add as part of next season.
The staff, along with myself and this is Matt who wrote the memo, are excited to move these projects forward and create the right plan for the future. Eagle Point Park is a special place that we support seen reaching a new level of care while maintaining the high level support for our total park system. Now that's the memo. I will add that he mentions the grant process with the Jefferson Foundation.
So in June, the mayor and City Council approved us applying for a grant from the Jeffers Foundation. And in the memo I just described, that was over $1 million of work that's going to happen at the Eagle Point Park. So in addition to that, there is let me look for the number in here.
So there will be about $2 million, which is part of this grant application that we're making to the Jeffers Foundation. Apparently in their program, they're willing to fund about $750,000 of that, assuming the city can raise through philanthropic efforts. The other two thirds of that $2 million. And so we are moving ahead with that fundraising campaign.
And so, in addition to the over $1 million that I just described, that'll be spent over mostly over this winter. This would be a project that would happen in two years, which is about $2 million. Now, we won't hear from the Jeffers Foundation till the end of this week whether we received their one third match.
But all the indications we've received from them up to this point are very positive. You can only apply to them if they invite you to apply. And they did invite us to apply. So that's a pretty good sign that we probably got a good chance of of getting that grant. Okay. Before I come back to you, Mr.
Spring, I just want to make sure that he knows what, because Mr. Spring found a very adept workaround, I think, for something that came up today. So the memo that Mike just read. So and then I'm going to ask for some guidance on here for some public input.
But the the memo that Mike just read was actually something that I requested for from Matt for our goal setting next week. So we have goal setting starting on Monday and Tuesday and then ending on Thursday next week.
A lot of you might know that, and that's where we set our priorities for every single year and decide what's what's going to happen in that kind of thing. So that memo was I actually requested, I believe, on Friday, if I'm not mistaken, it might have been over the weekend.
I'm not sure on that detail, but it's one of those days, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and Matt worked on that and was able to get that to the council today and through Mike. So we have that in our possession. It's going to be posted on the goal setting agenda for Monday's goal setting. So I've asked Adrian as our city clerk to do that.
So that's the reason that that is not part of this particular item, because this particular item doesn't actually specifically have to do with some of the the things that Mike was reading in his memo, but it does reap funding does have to do with Eagle Point Park. I hope that's clear. Probably not very clear, but that's what's going on here.
It's why you haven't seen the memo that Mike just read. But you did get to hear it. And I do want to make sure that we make it public as soon as possible.
So my first question, Adrian, is how fast can we post that on our website to make sure that people have that for the goal setting for Monday night, to be able to see that memo? Yeah, that can be posted on the city's website tomorrow. The goal setting agendas were going to be published Friday. I think we were still waiting for some materials from the facilitator to confirm that.
But until that time, we can post that somewhere else on the city's website and then include it when the those agendas are ready to be posted. Okay. Yeah, I would appreciate that. And I think everybody would. So we can make sure that everyone has access to that. My next question is, I know a lot of people are here to talk about Eagle Point Park this evening.
Would this be an appropriate time to provide some public input on this particular item? If I, or are we outside the bounds with the funding situation. Beings that it's limited to reap a think it would come volute the okay the two when they should be held separate. Okay.
All right well then that that I think explained or I think that kind of covers my next question then. So what I'm going to do is we're going to need to continue to move through. And then we'll we'll welcome public input when the public input time does come a little bit later in the in the session.
It shouldn't take us too long to get there based on what we have on the agenda. Anything else specific to reap funding, Mr.. Frank? Anything further? Okay. All right then, let's keep moving. So we've got a motion here to receive and file and approve. So Adrian called the roll, please. Spring. Staver a Wetzel. Resnick. Leyendecker. Kavanaugh. Roussel. Motion passes seven zero.
We'll move on to item set for public hearing. We have two. First is grant of easement to Holy Family Catholic Schools to book Iowa for September 8th, 2026. And second, is setting public hearing for consenting to the renewal of operating line of credit between the Dubuque Racing Association, LTE and Nicolet National Bank for September 8th, 2026.
Mayor I move to receive a file, adopt the resolutions, and set the public hearings for September 8th. Second by lethal. Got a motion by second by Adrian to call the roll, please. Staver. Resnick. Leyendecker. Kavanaugh. Roussel. Motion passes seven zero. We'll move on to boards and commissions.
We have application review for the Airport Commission and Housing Commission, and appointments for the Community Development Advisory Commission and Transit Advisory Board. All right. So our first commission here is the airport commission. Here we have two openings. They're both four year terms that run through 2030. We have four applicants at this time. So the first applicant is Michael Finnan.
Do we have anyone here to speak to this application this evening? Seeing no one here okay. Anyone virtually no input. All right then our next applicant is Michael Phillips. Do we have anyone to speak to that application this evening? No one here for that one. Nothing virtually. Okay. Next applicant, Molly Grover, I believe I saw Miss Grover.
Yes. Would you like to speak your application, Molly?
Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council members, city manager van Milligan, assistant city manager Corey Burbank, the attorney, city attorney Bromwell. And of course, the city clerk, Adrian Bright Felder. Good evening, everyone. It's great to be here. First off, I want to thank you for your consideration of my application to serve on the Airport Commission.
Air service has long been a priority of the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce. In my 20 years here from day one, and I've always had genuine interest on serving on the airport commission. I wasn't eligible until two years ago when I moved into the city of Dubuque, and that opportunity has arisen, hence the reason for my application.
I believe Air Service is not just an airport priority, it's a regional economic development priority. It strengthens our employers. It's it's strengthens workplace work force recruitment and retention. It expands tourism opportunities. It encourages economic investment. It grows our population and air. Air service infrastructure is so important to the future of our community.
We know what it looks like when infrastructure has been missed. The interstate system missed us in the 1950s, and we didn't have four lane connection into our community until the year 2000. Air service is really critical to access to the global marketplace. That's important from an economic standpoint.
It's important to to everyone from a quality of life standpoint. It's an expected amenity in today's 21st century global economy. We have students and families that depend on getting to our wonderful institutions of higher education. We have people that want to visit extended families.
We have employers that don't just do business here, but they do business not just on the national scale, but on a national scale, but on a global scale. I believe air service is one of the defining priorities of our economy now. And as we look ahead to the future, it would be a great honor to serve on the Airport Commission.
And I thank you for your consideration of my application. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Anyone else to speak to Miss Grover's application? All right. And the final applicant is Matthew Moore. Who have anyone to speak to that please.
Evening, folks. I'll just keep it short. Just keep trying to shorten the introduction portion. My name is Matt Moore, 560 Sunset Ridge. Thanks for hearing my application. It gave me an opportunity to look back at my logbook. I took my first flight at the Dubuque Airport on September 4th of 1997.
I'm a graduate of University Dubuque Aviation Program. I'm currently an airline pilot for for a major airline based in Chicago. I have over 12,000 hours of accident free airline service. I have worked in many different facets and and I've fueled aircraft. I've been a flight instructor since 2026 years as a flight instructor. I have a seaplane rating.
I've was a cargo. I worked for UPS in Saint Louis as a ramp supervisor, leading a team of 25 people loading cargo planes at night. I interned at TWA. I'm in the airport every week. I'm in the air system every week.
I to say to you, talk about subject matter experts earlier, I feel like I fit that description. Being that my job, my livelihood, all my training is revolving around airports and flying. I do work as a pilot. You work in a collaborative environment. Every day you meet new people. You deal with new situations. Every flight is different. Every situation is different.
I'm able to meet all those challenges so far without any issue and knock on wood, but I have a strong background in the aviation. I have a national flight instructor, different organizations, AOPA National Flight Instructor, Seaplane Pilot Association. So my background and a lot of the talk I do at work obviously is aviation related.
So I have a lot of friends, a lot of colleagues that are also in similar roles throughout the country. And I can draw on a pretty vast amount of experience from not only my background, but the people that I work with, background in issues that are, you know, affecting our air service.
Essentially, you know, like we talked about, the Air Service was a very high priority for the city of Dubuque. Unfortunately, we talked about the Central Air Service has been shut down. And to get that going on a federal level is obviously going to be the most important thing we do going forward.
Try to get air service back into Dubuque. Our own efforts came up a little bit short, but my goal to getting on the commission would be to have a strong aviation community. UD is currently 450 students going to 700 students. That's a big that's a big aspect of the airport and the operations we need to focus on.
In addition, opening up again on the federal level, Essential Air Service to get scheduled service back into Dubuque, which would also benefit me, to get me to Chicago to work. That would be helpful instead of driving every week, I would appreciate that. So just being from Dubuque, I have roots here.
I had the opportunity earlier this year of that proposed data center situation out by the airport, and I was able to speak up in this, the citizenry component aspect of it, rating some of the dangers of putting that in that position. So I'm already being an advocate for the airport, even in just a regular citizen role.
And I would like this to continue that work that I started. I kind of got a little taste of it. And and to continue that work in more of an official aspect. So thanks for your consideration. Appreciate it. Thank you, Matt, for your comments. Anyone else to speak to man's application? All right. Moving on then to the Housing Commission.
We have one three year term through August 17th, 2029. Here we have one applicant, Amy Daly. Do we have anyone here to speak to Amy's application? See? No one here. Nothing virtually. Okay, then that brings us to board and commission appointments. Here we have the Community Development Advisory Commission. We have one three year term through 2023.
And this is specific as you'll see on there, it is a low to moderate income representative. We have one three year term through February of 29. This is a vacant at large term. So let's take the first term first please. And you'll notice we have one applicant who would qualify. So I'd entertain a motion please.
Mr. Mayor. Mr.. So I move to a point to Fisher, to the Community Development Advisory Commission for a one year term for the vacant low moderate income rep term. Second base rank. All right. And it is actually it's a term through 2028. Just to clarify they're not one year term.
So we have got motion by second by Adrian. Call the roll please. I Staver I Wetzel I Resnick Leyendecker I Kavanaugh Roussel I. Motion passes seven zero. Next we have one three year term through 2029. I'll take a motion here please. Mr.. Mayor. Mr..
I motion that we nominate Paul USL for the at large for one year or to 2020 to 20 to February 15th, 2029. Second by. One motion. By spring. Second by Adrian. Call the roll, please. Spring. Staver, I. Wetzel. Resnick. Leyendecker. Kavanaugh. Roussel. Motion passes seven zero. Transit Advisory board. We have three three year terms through July 30th, 2029. In this case, we have three applicants.
So I would entertain a motion of all three applicants at the same time if anyone would care to do that. Otherwise we can do these one at a time.
Mr. mayor. I move to nominate Marilyn Cole, Greg Orwell and Dora Serna to a three year term through July 30th, 2029 for the Transit Advisory Board. Second. Got a motion by cell. Second by Resnick. Adrian, call the roll, please. I Staver. Hi. Resnick. Leyendecker. Kavanaugh. Roussel. A motion passes seven zero.
We will now move on to public hearings. At this time, anyone participating in the meeting in person who would like to discuss one of the public hearing items, please approach the podium. When the mayor asks if there is any in-person input for the public hearing you would like to speak to, and state your name and address.
For all remote attendees, please enter your name and address in the chat function and state your question or state your name and address over the phone. When the mayor asks if there is any virtual input for the public hearing you would like to speak to.
If more than one participant would like to speak, then city staff will determine the speaking order of the participants. Public hearing. Number one is Wacker Plaza planned unit development amendment.
Mr. mayor, I move to receive and file and further move that the requirement that a proposed ordinance be considered and voted on for passage at two council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to be finally passed, be suspended. Second motion a second by Wally, please. Yes. Good evening, mayor and city council members, please.
Just going to pull up the presentation on the screens. There it is. Okay. The request before you tonight is to amend the Wacker Plaza plan unit development, which has a plan commercial plan, unit designation covering it to update the signage parking requirements and the conceptual development plan.
This is a map of the property, the area or the PUD boundaries are identified with the blue outline, and then we have the black hashed outline areas.
The main focus of the amendment with regards to adding of a drive through and bank ATM location, we do notify all property owners inside the plan unit development and everyone within 200ft of the property. So that was done based on our Unified Development Code state law. A little background history. This area prior to 1989 was his own business. And in 1989 the Wecker Plaza Planning and Development was adopted.
And in 2005, we had an amendment to the signage area requirements that pertained to free stain and signage. The site is actually comprised of two parcels that total approximately six acres, and the pod has nearly halved insights into inception. So a large portion of this is to be where you see now the Collins Community Credit Union, where Shopko used to be located. That's under a separate PUD now.
So this area is just focused on the boundaries that you see here shaded in purple. So the existing conceptual development plan reflects the existing property extent. So there are no new buildings being proposed here with the exception of the drive thru. Because the drive thru was not shown on the conceptual development plan.
It is an amendment to that plan that had to go through the process, the zoning commission. And now before you here at the city council level, with regards to that, when we looked at the conceptual development plan, it also provides an opportunity to update some of the existing zoning ordinance that's associated with it.
And we're looking at, for instance, we had a signage amendment to it. I actually have in the next slide when we talk about, but this is regards to parking. When we look at parking, there's constant changes of a mixed use. It's a multi-tenant business and we looked at having the standard park requirement.
We're looking at one space for 250ft█ of floor area accessible to the public. That would just equate to 218 spaces being required with the current building layout. However, the site currently provides 287 off street parking spaces, and that includes the amendment. Even with the bank and drive through that's being proposed at the location.
However, a developer could propose more parking in the future, but I'm basically saying that it is complying with parking. There's more parking that needs to be need. We're just making a little bit more clear in the plan unit development. With regards to the signage requirement, we're looking to update that just to incorporate that 2005 amendment.
What happened typically in the past was we'd have the original ordinance, then we'd have a separate document that was an amendment. So when we'd have realtors, appraisers, banks would contact us. Anyone's associated with purchasing or developing, we'd have to pull two ordinances out.
I like to try to combine that all in one real easy ordinance, and we provide an ordinance history in there. The other thing is, with regards to the signage requirements, the proposal is to add the bolts as you see there, to be a little bit more clear on the total amount of signage allowed on the site.
It was very unclear with regards to it says wall signage is limited two square feet of wall signage per each linear foot of facade frontage. And it's like what facades? Right.
So we ran this by the property owner and we had a conversation to be very clear what we're talking about and just helps clear up some of that gray area, make it more black and white in the future. On the ordinance, we did not receive any public input with regard to the request. So at that public meeting, Cody Weaver, who's the civil engineering consultant, spoke on behalf of the property owner.
He stated that they were seeking to add a bank with a drive up ATM to the building located on building C, which I'll show you here once again, is the area outlined in red. We did take this to our development review team. So our engineering department, building fire, water and planning departments have all reviewed this from that standpoint.
Do not see any issues with the traffic flow and the removal of the off street parking or things with it. So the preliminary approval, we'd like to do that for planned unit developments before they come before you, as opposed to getting something to prove, to find out. It doesn't meet our standards with that. So.
The representative is here, available tonight if you guys have any questions. But by a vote of 5 to 0, the Zoning Advisory Commission recommends the City Council approve all of the proposed plan amendment, and a simple majority vote is needed for City Council to approve the request. And that's all I have. Unless you guys have any questions.
All right. Thank you very much, Molly. Well, we're here tonight in a public hearing to consider a Wacker Plaza planned unit development amendment as outlined there by Mr.. Do we have any public input on this item? Seeing none here. Anything? Virtually? No. Okay. Back to us then. Any discussion or questions? I'm seeing and hearing? None.
Motion here is to receive and file and waive the three readings. Thank you. Wally. Adrian, call the roll, please. Spring. Staver. Hi. Wetzel. Resnick. Leyendecker. Kavanaugh. Roussel. Motion passes seven zero. Mr.. Mayor. Mr.. I move final consideration and passage of the ordinance. Second by motion. Member cell. Second by Adrian. Call the roll, please. Hi, Staver. Hi.
What I Resnick. Hi, Lyon. Decker. Kavanaugh. Hi, Russell. Motion passes seven zero. Public hearing number two is a proven and amended and restated lease agreement by in between the city of Dubuque, Iowa and RG hospitality, LLC. Mr.. Mayor, Mr.. Spring I motion that we receive and file and adopt the resolution. Second by.
Got a motion and a second by Mike please. Thank you. Development director Jill Connors is recommending city Council adopt attached resolution approving the Amended and Restated lease agreement by and between the City of Dubuque and RG hospitality, LLC. City staff informed RG hospitality, LLC that the city would consider a lease extension is substantial.
Investment in the property was proposed for discussions and negotiations. The parties have developed an Amended and Restated lease agreement with the following key elements. Number one a 50 year lease September 1st, 2026 through August 31st, 2076. Number two, lessee must invest approximately $9.5 million in building improvements, equipment, furniture and fixtures.
Number three redevelopment to a Radisson hotel brand, including meeting their standards. Improvements to the outer deck, renovated water park, arcade, the restaurant, bar, conference rooms and 193 rooms and suites. Number four construction to begin by September 1st, 2026, and substantial completion by September 1st, 2028. Number five initial base rent for the land $94,486.12 in the first year, with an annual escalator of 3%.
Number six after completion of the 25th month of this lease and if exclusive parking is elected, an additional $95,136.22 a year is due. In addition to the base rent and number 710 years of tax increment financing rebates provided by the city, I would mention that this RG hospitality LLC is a subsidiary or associated with it.
Probably a better word. The riddle jewelry store chain, who also has a jewelry store here at Kennedy Mall, and we have met with the choice hotel corporate representatives. And that that's a Radisson Hotel is a choice hotel product. And they advise that the riddle's own and operate an award winning choice hotel property in South Dakota.
I concur with the recommendation and respect for request mayor and City Council approval. Thank you Mike. We're in a public hearing to consider approving and amended and restated lease agreement buying between the City of Dubuque, Iowa and RG hospitality, LLC.
Do we have anyone here in chambers to address us on this item? Seeing no one here and one virtually. I have two. The first is David Westergaard. Is available from RG hospitality. He says to answer questions. But David, I'll ask if you want to address the council. Absolutely. Thank you everybody. Thank you mayor. Thank you. Members of the City Council, I am absolutely excited to join you tonight.
I joined you back in January when you transferred the amended lease to us. We have about eight months under our belt now and are even more excited to be a part of the Dubuque community, and we are excited that our projects are going to be kicking off here.
We are on the cusp of of improvements to the water park, remodels to the room, the lobby, adding some really, I think, pretty cool amenities that our guests will really enjoy.
And and our team has spent a fair amount of time at the property and certainly have visited extensively with guests and gotten some feedback from them of what they would love to see. And we are incorporating a lot of those amenities into the property, so certainly would welcome any questions, comments concerns that anyone has. All right. Well, thank you very much for your comments. We'll see if there's any other public input.
And then if any of us have any questions for you. We'll be sure to direct them your way. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you mayor. All right. Any other public? You said there's one more. Sorry. The second is Jimmy Evans. From Choice Hotels. Okay. Go ahead. Jimmy. Good evening everybody.
Good to see some of you again. When I was back there in January. And the gentleman that spoke. Was Dave, not Dave. The the the development commission gentleman he and I had met and he had kind of stole some of my thunder, but I just wanted to jump on real quick.
We are thrilled to be in partnership again with The Riddle Group and and our g hospitality there in Dubuque. We've been in business with The riddle Group for over 20 years. First being a comfort and built in Rapid City, South Dakota, which was the property of the year, I think the second year after opening.
They've since sold that property. But the gentlemen also alluded to their their cars Lodge, which is a collection t hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota. That's been a a real gem for us. It's consistently a top performer.
It's currently under an expansion and renovation, which is going very well and was awarded the the highest honor for the ascent election in 2025 and won a platinum award, which is the best property both quality wise and performance wise, I think. We're we're blessed to be part of it with the Radisson brand.
They've been very engaged, you know, meeting their milestones and on track to start their renovation here in September. Can't wait to see how that all turns out. But I just wanted to give everybody a vote of confidence in the riddle Group to perform both at delivering a quality product and a well performing asset to their the city of Dubuque and and
that banner location right there on the the pier. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much, Jimmy, for your comments. Thank you for being here. Any other public input on this item? Okay. Please.
Ten times Main Street. David downs. I guess the question for the council would be why a 50 year lease? That just seems it's going to live all of us in this room and then some. That's my question. Thank you very much for your question. All right. Any others? All right. Back then to us for any discussion.
Yes. Mr.. Number three says redevelopment to Radisson Hotel, bringing it up to their standards. Will they have ongoing standards that they need to continue to meet? I know that in past years, our hotel has maybe not been up to the standards we would have liked it to be.
Will this help us ensure that we continue to have a quality product. So we have the right to do our own inspections to make sure we believe they're keeping a quality property? But also we know that the choice hotels holds them to certain standards also.
Economic Development Director Jill Connors, I believe, is here and may have something she wants to add to that.
Good evening. Jill Conners, economic development director, and thanks for that question. We do have in the development agreement the stipulation that they have to have at least annual reviews from the Radisson brand and to stay to their standards so that that review, that audit will happen by the brand in order for them to keep that brand name.
Good. Sure. Thank you. Other comments. Questions? I can speak to that. This is Jimmy Evans from Choice Hotels. Yeah. We have rigorous standards that are not only in electronic form, but, you know, one on one site visits with our operational support twice a year.
And we're, we're, we're, we're watching and keeping them on on pace for a, a quality product. All right. Thank you. Jimmy. Yeah. Mr. mayor. Mike. City manager. Jill, can you address the lease term that was questioned? So if you wouldn't mind, if we could ask Mr. Westergaard to address that from the RG hospitality? Yeah. Great. Because this was their request was a 50 year lease.
I will point out that the original hotel had a 45 year lease, and at that time, the developer's position was to get a return on their substantial investment. But anyway, I'll let Mr. Westergaard address that.
I think the biggest thing of why we were driving for a 50 year lease term is, you know, we have we have some resources, certainly to put into the hotel from our own account, but we are borrowing a fair some from a from a bank out of Nebraska.
And, you know, when a property is on a ground lease, what we have seen with most banks, they get a little bit nervous about that process if it's not a extended period of time. So that 50 year term was really at the request of our financial institution, just to make sure that they have, you know, that that that lease in place to make sure that their collateral is secure for an extended period of time, even past the the loan expiration.
Thank you. David. Anything. Thank you. Yeah. And I think this is a good time to point out that one of the reasons that we're even talking about a lease is that we don't sell the general standard for the city council for years now, and we've generally kept this is we don't sell riverfront property. We lease it.
It belongs to the people of Dubuque, and we want to keep it that way. But then also make sure that as we do so, there is a return coming back on that.
So the last few years, we've talked about the riverfront leases that were there for various industries that are there, making sure that the city of Dubuque is getting paid better for those. But then also in this particular case, the question of this hotel is a unique one. We've talked about the length of the lease in multiple different conversations in this room and just in public in general, and there's a lot of numbers that are thrown around for the length of a lease.
And I think, honestly, a 50 year lease in this particular case, I think is a good deal for both parties. I think that we heard from Mr.
Westergaard as to the reason why, and I think that the for the city of Dubuque, it's actually potentially less than some other leases and some other cities in a similar type of property. So I think we're in a pretty good situation. And I will say that this entire process in working with RG hospitality so far has been very, very good. They've been very upfront with us. They've worked with us very clearly.
It's been, I think, a good collaborative conversation so far to a very about a very important property. So I'm very excited to be able to see this all moving forward, and glad that we are at this point where we can put this on paper and then get moving so we can start to see those improvements take place.
Anything further? Okay. Well thanks for the input for everybody from everyone. Thank you very much, Jill, for answering some questions there. Motion here is to receive and file and adopt the resolution. Adrian to call the roll please. I Staver I Resnick. Leyendecker. Kavanaugh. Roussel. Motion passes seven zero.
Public hearing number three is petition to vacate lot 25 B of block 11, Dubuque Downtown Plaza in the city of Dubuque, Iowa, for vacating petition. Northeast Iowa Community College building entrance improvements project. Mr.. Mayor. Mr.. I move to receive and file and adopt the resolution resolutions. We caught the s on the end. Thank you, Miss Roussel. Second from miss. All right. Mike, please. Thank you.
City Engineer Gus is recommending City Council adopt a resolution approving the vacation and disposal of city interest in the right of way. Property described of lot 25 B of black 11 Dubuque Downtown Plaza as part of the Northeast Iowa Community College's construction of its proposed building. Entrance site improvements at 700 Main Street.
I concur with the recommendation and respect the request. Mayor and City Council approval. All right. Thank you Mike. We are in a public hearing to discuss the petition to vacate related to this Northeast Iowa Community College building entrance improvement project. We have any public input on this item. Seeing nothing here. Anything virtually. All right.
Anything from us seeing and hearing nothing. Motion here is to receive and file and adopt the two resolutions. Adrian, you call the roll, please. Staver I, Wessel, Resnick. Leyendecker. Kavanaugh. Roussel. That motion passes seven zero. Public hearing number four is JFK water tower interior piping and expansion joint replacement project. Conduct public hearing and approved bidding documents.
Mr. mayor, I move to receive and file and adopt the resolution. Second motion by one second by Resnick. Mike, please. Thank you. Water Department Director Chris Lester is recommending City Council adopt the resolution approving the plan specifications, form of contract and estimated construction cost. Amount of $60,000 for the JFK tower interior piping and Expansion Joint Replacement Project.
The proposed contract estimate is above the fiscal year 27 expense budget, which has a current available expense value of $50,000. Coverage for expenses overages anticipated to come from the Water Storage Rehabilitation Program Capital Improvement Program, which is also being used for the dry tank cleaning and inspections activities being conducted at the JFK tank.
In coordination with this project. It has a current available construction expense value of $25,000 that can be utilized for this purpose. I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council approval. Thank you. Mike. We're in a public hearing to discuss the JFK Water Tower Piping and Expansion Joint replacement project.
Any input on this item this evening? Nobody wants to talk. Water towers. Virtually no input. All right, back to us for any discussion. Seeing and hearing. None. Motion here is to receive and file. Adopt the resolution. Adrian, would you call the. Roll, please? Sprang. Staver, I Wetzel. Resnick. Lyon. Decker. Kavanaugh. Hi. Roussel. Motion passes seven zero.
Next is public input. At this time, anyone participating in the meeting may address the City Council on the action, items on the agenda, or on matters under the control of the City Council. For all in-person attendees, please approach the podium and state your name and address.
When the mayor asks if there is any in-person input for all remote attendees, please enter your name and address in the chat function or state your name and address over the phone. When the mayor asks if there is any virtual input. If more than one participant would like to speak, then city staff will determine the speaking order of the participants.
Individual remarks are limited to five minutes, and the overall public input period is limited to 30 minutes. Under the Iowa Open Meetings Law, the City Council can take no formal action on comments given during public input or that do not relate to the action items on the agenda. Thank you. Adrian. All right, so I know we've got public input, so come on up.
Whoever wants to go first if you would like to provide input and you're waiting, I'd ask that you please line up over here on the side of the room. A couple of things. We're going to we're going to try to hold it to around 30 minutes. I'll wiggle a little bit on that.
We can go a little bit longer. But I would ask that you please keep your neighbors in mind. Try to keep that five minute limit. So do your best. I am going to I'm going to call it out when we hit five minutes. If you're there I'll try to do so respectfully. So please.
City council, city staff. My name is George Davis. I've lived at 120 South Grandview, just south of the highway 20 Grandview overpass for 3131 years. I served on the Duke school board years ago and helped prioritize funding for school activity facilities, which had become dilapidated and many of which an embarrassing state.
Some one of the things that push us over the edge to to do work on our facilities at the high school was several high schools refused to run on our track because of how bad our six lane track was.
We only had a six lane track at Dalzell Field, and several of the lanes were dangerous to run in and schools refused to run in them. So that was kind of the impetus to get Dalzell Field done. And then the swimming pool and improvements in Hempstead and many other improvements. And you folks are in somewhat of a similar situation with many dilapidated, loved public public facilities.
I mean, Tain the overpass plantings on Grandview and Fremont overpasses of highway 20 for 20 years raise money for the plantings on flower beds on Grandview Avenue for 15 years, have done maintenance work on the flower beds and the medians in front of my house for many years, and I was married on the back entrance field, Point Park.
I'm also currently on the Conservation Board, which maintains many of our county recreation areas. The city and we in Dubuque have referred to ourselves for many years as the masterpiece on the Mississippi. I don't think that moniker really applies anymore for a number of reasons, which I'll illuminate. Rob McDonald's is documented the current embarrassing, deprecated state of Eagle Point Park.
It's going to take much more than the $2 million that was talked about earlier. To restore this, one of the most things that our community has most pride in to the way it was 30 years ago. In addition, every street and roadway in the city of Dubuque is littered with debris, weeds, unwanted trees, and trash. It's.
I don't understand why we can't do the simple things, why we can't get rid of the stumps, why we can't pick up the trash, why we can't maintain these roadways. In addition to Eagle Point Park, the median on Grandview Avenue has been in a long decline of dilapidation. Has our most of our parks.
Our city properties are filled with thousands and thousands of dead and dying intrusive trees, trees that overlap onto the roadway. If you go down Grandview and follow a bus, you'll see them brushing up against all the trees along the way. In the current state of maintenance, the community's public property.
I no longer believe the moniker masterpiece on the Mississippi applies, and I would propose the following proposal. I would propose the city discontinue the use of the phrase masterpiece on the Mississippi until our public parks, roadways, and other city owned areas are brought back to their formal level of maintenance, repair, and glory.
I would say cover the signs, remove the moniker from our web page and our letterhead, and discontinue its use. This could be a unifying and rallying point for our community, as we seek to restore the status of masterpiece on the Mississippi to our community, further provide incentive for people, individuals, and businesses
to bring their properties to a higher level of care. I therefore, ask the City Council to put a moratorium, if you will, on the use of masterpiece on the Mississippi until such time as we can rightfully and justifiably claim the status.
If any of you would like to take a tour through the city of Dubuque and look at some of these dilapidated and uncared for areas, I would be personally willing to do that. And I've offered that to many of you in the past. Just reach out to me and I'll be happy to drive you around.
I know it becomes, you know, in the movie Field of Dreams, they said it's money they have. It's peace they lack. Well, we have the money in the city of Dubuque. It's the will to do these repairs that that is lacking.
And now that some of these things have gotten so bad, just like the track at Dalzell Field, perhaps you can find the the courage to move forward on proving many of these areas, like thank the city employees for what they do and thank the council for your service. And please reach out to me. I'd be glad to take you on a tour and show you what I see. Thank you. George for your comments.
Just for reference. That was exactly five minutes. Just so people know.
My name is Carl Stiglitz. I live at 533 Lowell Street, Dubuque, Iowa 52001. Mr. mayor, City Council and City Manager, I come tonight in support of community efforts to see Eagle Point Park return to its former glory. Eagle Point Park has been allowed to sink into a rather sad state of disrepair. This is a crying shame.
Back in the day when our family moved to Dubuque in 1994, the park was beautiful and renowned across the entire United States of America as one of the best municipal parks in the entire country. It was a wonderful place to visit. It has served our community well and many a graduation. Excuse me.
Birthday and other celebration party has been held there, including one of our own daughters. Please return our park to its original beauty and make the maintenance and upkeep of the facility a priority.
Once again, it just seems that the city's focus has moved from maintaining and sustaining what we have to forever seeking something new, and resources have shifted to providing for a different demographic, rather than sustaining regular service to the majority of our taxpaying community. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you for comments, Carl. Sorry.
My name is William Meyer, live at 1856 Romberg. I'm going to reiterate the same fact that I think Eagle Point Park should be a budget priority. And what I have with me is one of the more recent copies of the 365 Inc magazine. I'm sure you all, if you haven't seen it. They're at local businesses around town.
They promote things that going on in Dubuque, and we've just had a lot of interesting things happening with the Field of Dreams, Ragbrai and stuff, and this is something from Travel Dubuque Incorporated, which is Travel Dubuque
is filled with pages of great events, but these are the places and experiences that are always here to be discovered. They defined our community and should be at the top of every visitors to do list.
Obviously, the Field of Dreams in the National Mississippi Rivers Museum and Aquarium right there is Eagle Point Park in there, and I'll leave this here for a copy of everyone would like to see it. I definitely think Eagle Point Park should be made a budget priority, and I thank you for the efforts that you're doing, and I just think that more needs to be done. Thank you. Thank you.
Could you set that actually on the desk right right there so Corey can take it. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Good evening everyone. My name is Greg Faragher. My address is 22616 Star View Drive. When I was a child, my parents took my sisters and I at Eagle Point Park to see the view and the beauty of it. That was the early 80s.
Today it's nothing like that.
I took my son Jack through six years old to Eagle Point Park approximately about three months ago, and my son said to me, after about 15 minutes being there, dad, can we leave? There's no kids here to play with. And the reason why there's no kids there play with. Look at it.
What is there to do? All the splash pad that was there back when I was a child in the early 80s. Asbury Park has a great splash pad. Can. Muskie Park has a great splash pad. You can. Point Park has one that's 50 years old, 40, 50, whatever it is. Now let's move on to the trees.
The view that your point has or had is still there. I own gene free service in Dubuque with Ron USA. We have a contract with the city Dubuque for Terry.
We have the insurance and the experience to remove these trees from this view, either by crane or helicopter. Yes, you heard me. Correct. Crane or helicopter? We have experienced at both.
My question for the city manager is why are you looking for a business out of the city to do this job? When you have Gene R-3 service, a local business under contract with the city of the book for three movable that can do this project. Can you watch him, please? We actually aren't allowed to answer questions. Sorry about that. That's all right.
I'm going to end this with the statement. When I purchased 22616 Derby Drive, my dad said to me, Greg, there are only so much property up and down the river to have a veal like you have. And you have it now. You are one lucky man.
The city of Dubuque could have a great view like I have, like they did years ago. You two are lucky. Like I am like my dad, son. My suggestion is to make this a priority. To change Eagle Point Park. Put it back to where it was when I was young, when I was a kid.
So my son can go up and see the greatness of the park that it was once was years ago. That is, any questions for me? We would just we just take input. So thank you very much. Thank you for your input. We appreciate that.
Good evening. My name is Maria McDonald. 1125 Highland Place. A quick background I grew up on Eagle Point Drive. I played tennis at five years old on those courts that are now an eyesore, an extremely dangerous. I do live in Texas, but I've maintained a home here for 25 years as well as some other properties.
I pay taxes on the Eagle Point Park website says it is the crown of the Dubuque Park system. I'm curious the state of the other parks, and I hear there are some 50 parks which blew my mind. Hang on one second. I'm sorry. Maria. I'd ask for. Please. No. No noises or laughter. Disruption.
Let's just let people make their comments. We're listening politely. We'll continue to do so and take notes and make sure we we take that forward with us. I'm sorry to interrupt it. Thank you.
I'm just curious to the state of the other some 50 parks that I have been told are actually in this town, if this is how we're managing our crown, there are years of debris that is staggering in that park. In one word, what came to me was unkept. And I know that's not really a word that's used very often, so I'm just going to define it.
Not maintained. Not cared for. Messy. Disheveled, untidy. Neglected. And speaking of neglect, of course I already mentioned the tennis courts. I will not play on those tennis courts. They are extremely dangerous and I play tennis and pickleball. But. And Flora is no better.
So I'm thrilled to hear that that's going to be taken care of when I have friends come visit here. I without a doubt have got to take them to Eagle Point Park. It's part of my story. As part of who I am, I will find myself apologizing through the park and telling them how it used to be.
Sad yet accurate. Unkept. Hits the nail on the head. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your comments.
Person in the room. Hello, I'm Nina. I live on 180 West 15th Street apartment there are six and before I saw my inquiry, I just have one very simple question. Will the real McDonald please stand up? Nina, please don't. Please don't tell the room. I do not think so. So am I. Inquiry.
I happened to stumble upon the thesis morning. And there's a story about how the EPA in the city of Dubuque is collaborating together to clean up the Browns brownfield sites in Dubuque, and I'm very encouraged about that. But my inquiry is that this stuff takes time.
It's going to take years to clean up these sites, because that's just the nature of the work and the nature of how fast the federal government runs. And I feel that as part of how we can collaborate as fully as a city, that the city of Dubuque should participate in sessions that we just did with the like we just did with the data center, that we can
take input from the community to figure out what to do with these brown sites, because as much as I know that the city has a tendency to jump to development and business and all that sort of stuff, some of that land might be too toxic, even after the cleanup, to put
new business on there, and it's going to be a struggle to figure out how clean those areas are going to be. So I recommend that you look into things like solar fields or tree or turds or anything that can provide a benefit to the city that doesn't actively
put people at risk because of the how toxic these sites are. So I just think that it's a pretty good observation to look at how toxic these sites are and figure out what the best path forward is. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
That's easier. Good evening. Catherine Sorensen 2613. Jackson I'm not going to talk about Eagle Point Park, but I am going to talk about the parks because as the city of Dubuque, you are responsible for the condition or your department is responsible for the condition of all these parks. At this moment, you're a slumlord.
You mo the lawn and nothing else. Period. Park across the street. I don't know, it's kept a little bit better. Jackson Park. You need to get out there with a trimmer. They don't know that. There's a curbside to the sidewalk. They don't know that this is street gutter.
There's weeds growing around in the street gutters around a city park. On my way here, Kaminsky was mode. 24th Avenue looks great. Jackson doesn't. There's weeds coming up out of the sewer. They weren't touch. The curbside wasn't touched. 25th Avenue I think, is in competition with all the properties on White Street that don't know there's to street gutter.
And if there's a curbside to do, all the grass clippings on all three sides of that park are all the way around the sidewalk. Do we not own a blower? Do we not have a crew? This is management. This is management of your employees. If you are short staffed at your job.
If I'm staffed at my job, I'm expecting to find supervisors extra help. My management team is going to come down. They're not going to sit behind the desk in an office or go to a meeting. If you need three people to do a park in one day shouldn't happen.
A park can be done by 3 to 4, three to maybe five people within an hour. This is pure neglect from the top and down. No one's going out and verifying what they're doing. No one's checking behind them. That's obvious with Comiskey today.
On my way here, with all the social media stuff that's going on, that's blatant, that's outright a slap in the face of any citizen here, not including what has happened for decades at Eagle Point Park since this big meetings coming up, I'll throw out five flags again. I will throw out Grand River again. There are needs that need to be met.
Your escalators at Grand River have not been working for five years. There's two companies from the city of Chicago that are able to help maintain it and keep it leveled. That should be a Yulee maintenance problem that should not be going on and not being taken care of. It should be handled every single year. Understand something.
If it settles one more time the wrong way and those elevators go out, you're not an Ada compliance and they won't be able to host events because you have to be an Ada compliance to get people up to the second floor of that building. Same thing with Five Flags. They don't come asking for much, but you've told them no for every single year.
Are you aware that there's a heating issue in the theater lobby? No, they need some help. That theater lobby floor needs to be leveled out somehow so people don't go downhill or basically trip. You're ignoring it year after year after year.
That, in my opinion, with the parks, Eagle Point Park and Grand River and Five Flags classifies you wonder, a slum lord. I know it doesn't sound right, but there's no other way to put it because that's what they do. They ignore the problems until somebody comes to them and says, hey, we have a problem.
Oh, just so everyone knows, you might want to work on Grand River, there are approximately 1700 people that will be here this week of September 1st, between Grand River and Five Flags. If you really want to put on a good show, that's when you want to do it. Thank you. Thank you, Catherine, for your comments.
Good evening. Mayor and council members. City manager. My name is Karen. I live at 14248 Augusta Court, so I'm part of Dubuque County. I'm here just to talk a little bit about Eagle Point Park and that I consider and I guess I term in as mission critical and it should be a top priority.
We shouldn't have to be asking this to be a top priority, but please make it a top priority somehow. Find a way to reorganize your budget to support the plan to resurrect it. I don't think that we necessarily need to always rely on a foundation for a grant.
You've got very willing taxpayers in this city and county to pay for all the services and amenities that we we have and utilize. And I'd like to bring forward a new suggestion tonight in our, I'd like to see us engage our neighborhood watch associations, our neighborhood associations, especially where we have neighborhood parks. We have a, I believe, 31 parks peppered throughout the city.
Not not talking to you, Point Park Murphy, Allison Henderson. These are the small parks, a little, satellite parks, if you want to call them that.
I'd like to see us be able to solicit homeowners within those communities that we would, that we would engage them to help maintain those neighborhood parks and then provide them with a tax exemption, call it a community exemption on their property taxes to incentivize someone to come forward, volunteer and take ownership of those parks and take care of them and keep them beautified. They are the ones that are utilizing them the most, and I think they'd appreciate keeping their their own neighborhoods beautified.
They'd be a dedicated point of contact for any major concerns that that park would have. So you'd have firsthand feedback. And also, I think lastly, I'd like to add is that to free up resources that you have dedicated and I believe I heard you have nine full time employees set aside to handle these neighborhood parks.
Now, I'm not sure quite how that works, but nine you could free up those resources and allocate them, reallocate them to Eagle Point Park. That's what I would do. If I manage the park, that's what I would do. And then also those part timers, and we could have part timers do that as well.
But but like I said, create some sort of a tax exemption for these employees were people that would not employ, they wouldn't draw benefits, they wouldn't have any of those extra perks, but they would they would take interest in their own communities, maybe even more so.
So in closing, I guess I'd like to say, please don't be critical of our input. We feel that everyone in this room you may be critical of because we come forward.
Maybe not, but I feel that there's been criticism made because we are speaking up and we we might be just mere feeble citizens that who are simply concerned over a very deteriorating city park, Eagle Point Park. I too am very proud of that park.
52 years ago, I had my first date with my husband there and we're still married, so it's very dear to my heart and I think it's our duty and it's our responsibility to really care for and take the best care of God's gift to us because we have it here. You look up and down this river and you don't see that, and we have it and we're letting it go to waste.
And also I think lastly, I said lastly once, but I'll say it one more time, we need to honor the hundreds of unemployed men that came forward in the mid 30s on the WPA program. Maybe some have grandfathers that work that and that they put their sweat and blood and sometimes their lives into creating that park, building those buildings, creating those shelters, forming that park to what it is today. And we and we have let it gone to waste.
And so we're all here to hear and and we're very eager to hear your response. And I know you can't respond tonight, but we certainly look forward to next week when you finalize your budget or make your first pass at it. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. All right, Karen, thank you for your comments. All right.
If we could try to finish up by 510 after you look at the clock in the back there, if we could, for whoever's left, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.
Members of. The council and city staff. My name is Phil Voss. I live at 980 South Grandview. I'm not a Dubuque. I came here five years ago when I met my wife in college in Nebraska. I've been around the Midwest, lived in a couple different cities, different states, made Dubuque my home.
I have the privilege of being George Davis's son in law. I've helped them on a number of these improvement projects on the green space of South Grandview over the years. In my day job, I manage a team that's responsible for around $270 million annual budget. So just a little bit larger than the City of Dubuque revenue budget.
But I like to think that when it comes to great responsibility, right, you have great opportunities. I know it's a catchy saying from from a TV, from a movie and a TV series, but it's true. You have the power to do great things in your seats.
And what a number of these citizens have come to talk about is, is is what we're what we want to see. There's a saying to that. You become what you tolerate, right? It's it's not what you promise. It's not what you said or ribbon cutting. It's not what you, you know, potentially put in a, in a budget sometimes, but it's what you repeatedly allow.
So it's it's a very uncomfortable question. But what are we becoming when you see things like what have been mentioned in the state of Eagle Point Park and some of our green spaces in Dubuque, that sets a it sets a precedent of a culture.
What what do you want your neighbors? I mean, I love where I live on South Grandview. I love that my neighbors take care of their yards. I'm very proud of what my house looks like, but it is discouraging when you look in the middle of the street and see what that looks like.
It's discouraging when you go to your parks and see what they look like. Does that set a tone for how citizens and homeowners and landlords throughout Dubuque landlord myself, treat their properties as well? And so ask yourself when when you think about the course that you want to set, think about what you're tolerating, tolerating things
that we really shouldn't be tolerating as a city. So that's what I wanted to say. Thanks. Thank you. And was it Billy? I'm sorry. It's Phil. Phil. Thank you. Phil. Thank you for your comment.
Hello. My name is Mary Lan. I live at 2069 Avalon. And I just want to say, as a citizen, it really is mind blowing how the park got the way it did. And I feel guilty because a few years back I tried to get things going, but I'm not.
I don't hold the high position or have a lot of people in my circle to get things rolling. So when I heard about this, the people getting together, I jumped on board. So now that we're here, I'm happy to say I did like the Matt the manager has planned. But where now? We got to get the funds.
Where are we going to get the funds? Please, maybe stop building new parks and other things and till we get this park fixed, I think I read there's another aquatics in the works, so that would be my first priority to put equal point at the top of the list until that is well done. Now friends of Eagle Point Park and people volunteering.
That's all good and said and done, but we know you're going to need skilled workers. That. Do roofing, masonry and concrete and construction people and contractors with license. So I hope you post those jobs to the people of the city of the book so they can have first crack at applying to help fix this park. Thank you.
Thank you. Mary, for your comments.
Good evening, mayor Mike. Mike Hoskins 3052 Westmore to Buck, Iowa. I'm going to be short. I'm going to say it real simple. You all saw Rob McDonald's videos. It's an embarrassment what we have allowed this park to become. And it's in all of you. You guys are the ones that set the priorities.
I hear what Mike talked about in the millions of dollars that are currently allocated. Is it going to happen? Is it rhetoric? Because I really don't know. So I hear a lot of rhetoric that comes out of boards and out of and out of councils. I just retired from the school district.
I took my classes because we don't have a gym. I had Mike's grandson in my classes. We'd go to the parks, try to play outside yard games, springtime, Eagle Point Park, disrepair, unusable. A.Y. McDonald Park grass up to my calf. I called the parks department twice to get a cut.
Once they cut it, you could bail hay on it. Gay Park the same situation. What you people are doing is is not action. It's unacceptable and it needs to fix. That's why elections happen and new people are elected if you can't get your jobs done. Thank you very much. Appreciate the time. Thank you, Mike, for your comments.
Leonard. Dress 541 place I lived in Dubuque all my life. I go back to 1966 when I used to ride my bike up to eight Point Park, go to the kids pond, the band shelter, looking over the river, the you know, all over that park just riding through us young kids dead back then and now we're talking,
I believe I heard we're going to take a parking lot and we're going to make it a pocket park, but keep six parking places there. So will we be building a bigger multi-story parking ramp? I think leave that parking lot space there for people to park. And the money that was going to be spent on that.
Let's take that data. Point Park, thank you for your time. Thank you, Leonard, for your comments. All right. I think we take two more. I see two more line up. So come on over. Good evening. My name is Jeff Small. I live at 13924 Surrey Lane. Born and. Raised in Dubuque.
Left in the mid 80s for almost 40 years. Moved back in 2020. Visited Eagle Point Park two times and I guess after the second time it was just disappointing. It's been a while since I've driven through it.
I do like the newfound attention to the park, and all I really want to say is, number one, I appreciate you all listening to everybody tonight. I'm sure it gets tiring. It's hard to do, but I think the bells been rung where you understand there's a lot of attention now to the condition of the park. Please use your leadership positions to make something happen.
You all have a leadership position, so you take those positions because you do want to make some action. Take some action to make things better. So I think every one of you wants to make things better. And Dubuque, please put some focus on Eagle Point Park. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
Ten times Main Street David Downs again. Long story short on Elm downtown Saturday launch Sunday lunch. People coming all the time and always ask what to do if it's if they're already to come and grab food. And here's my little spiel I would say two doors down.
Go to the bookstore, check out, even read, see what's on the shelves. Just cool to see what's going on. Society. It's fun for street elevator. Check out Livin to Go. Irish store immersed again. Just a lot of fun. Then to the great coffee. Daniel Natalie. Eagle Point Park is something I always say to people all the time.
I haven't been there a long time myself, so I went there on Saturday and it definitely needs work, so I'd like to see a budgeted priority for the next budget, but there's definitely some stuff there that looks fun there, but there's definitely a lot of that missing stuff.
This last pad, some stuff, but I think it's definitely something Evans aware of and we can do together to get it better. So make it a priority in the budget. And then I think it's complete right now.
Eagle Point Park is actually when you walk in or when you drive in the front, the park information spot right there, it's just too much grass like your initial look should be your best look forward. And that right there is just the first thing is right there. I don't mean to walk around, show you the picture. I'm sure you can go to the park yourself and look at it. But I took a picture and just like, I can't believe that that's the first initial thing.
Some of the structures look great, the buildings are rough, the view is not there, but I think everyone here wants to fix it together and hopefully we can make that happen in 2015. Budget make it a top priority. Thank you. All right. Thank you for your comments. Well thank you everybody for your comments. We do appreciate it.
And thank you for taking the time to be here, taking the time to do this in a in the civil fashion that you did. It's definitely appreciated. So we appreciate you being here. If you are planning to leave, we just ask that you do so quietly and then head straight downstairs. Don't hang out out there.
I don't have the door because we can hear everything that's said. If you want to stick around, feel free. We've got some more work to do. So we can. We can definitely do that. So thank you for being here. And Mr. Mayor.
I will just note for the record that Jill Pencoed, 2620 Marquette Place did submit written input on Eagle Point Park that's been provided to the council. Thank you Adrian. All right. We can move on to action items, please. Action item number one is resolution amending lot name for vacating petition. Northeast Iowa Community College building entrance and purchase project.
Mr. mayor. File and adopt the resolution. Second by. Got a motion and a second by Mike, please. Thank you. City Engineer Gus is recommending City Council adopt the resolution, correcting the light name and previously approved resolutions. Hang on one second. Hey, everyone. If I could have silence in the room, please, while we continue business, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you very much. Please, Mike. For the plant and for the vacation of the disposal. Sale of a portion of Main Street in West seventh Street, right of way in the city. I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council approval. Thank you. Mike.
Any discussion? Seeing and hearing? None. All right. Motion here is to receive and file and adopt the resolution. Adrian is called roll, please. Staver. Hi, Wessel. Hi, Resnick. Leyendecker. Kavanaugh. Hi. Roussel passes seven zero. Action item number two is approving a development agreement by in between the city of Dubuque, Iowa and Thunder Valley, LLC.
Mr.. Mayor. Mr.. We receive and file and adopt the resolutions. Got a motion by spring and a second by Russell. We've got a little noise in the hallway, but people are filing through the stairs. Mike go ahead please. Thank you.
Economic Development Director Jill Connors is recommending City Council adopt attach resolution, approving a development agreement by and between the City of Dubuque and Thunder Valley, LLC, providing for the use of urban revitalization district tax abatement. The key elements of the development agreement include the following. Developer will make a capital investment approximately $12 million. To develop the property, developer must create 72 residential rental units.
Developer must construct public sanitary improvements on the property as defined in the agreement. Developer received ten years of tax abatement on 73% of the increased value above the current assessed value of the property. City will prepare an Urban Revitalization Area Plan for City Council review at a public hearing following the execution of the development agreement.
The city to develop, construct and maintain at city's expense, a temporary solution for sanitary sewer access to allow tenants to occupy the multi residential buildings upon the issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy. The temporary solution shall continue until the sanitary sewer design and construction obligations of developer are allowed by permit from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
I concur with the recommendation and respect for the request. Mayor and City Council approval. Discussion. Mr.. Mayor. Mr.. I guess I have a question about the process of what we just talked about, and you just talked about and a question that I got from citizen, I'm going to ask you tonight is, is the quality of prior
developments by developers any have any. Is that part of what's considered as part of this process. Meaning. So we have developers create a project and we checked them out. As far as you know, they're qualified contractors. And and do we ever check up on what they have actually produced and then said this.
This is absolutely maintains the quality of what we are expecting. I guess my question.
Thank you. Jill Connors, development director we do have a process in our department and it's called the Good Neighbor Inquiry. It's a process that we put together a number of years ago, because a concern like that had come up of who are we providing incentives to our they on the naughty list, let's say, with our housing department
or something. And so we submit a ticket, I'll call it, that gets spread out to maybe 10 or 12 departments. Ask stating here's the name and address of the the proposed applicant for for the incentives to find out if they're in any sort of violation of other requirements from other departments.
And then we look at that and if there aren't any issues, then we proceed. So there is an after action report in a in a way, in a conversational way with after the project is completed. Not after it's complete. Before we would enter into an agreement, we make sure that they're not in violation with any of the other departments.
So, for instance, if there were a landlord that weren't in good standing with some of their other properties because we have them list all of the properties that they own in town. So if there were an issue, say, with the housing department, that would be brought to our attention before we entered into agreement. All right. Thank you for that information.
Gives me a little information more than I had. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Mr.. Thank you. This question, I think, is either for you, Mike, or for Jill. You know, the topic of housing incentives has come up at this table several times in the past few months. And this particular type of incentive has clearly been on the table, and this developer has taken advantage of it.
But looking forward, are we going to be or can we be revisiting this right away at goal setting in light of the state legislative changes and, you know, all the changes that have happened? You know, we've had a lot of apartments being built.
What are the occupancy rates? And is this the right kind of of housing that we want to have incentives on going forward? I don't know, Mike, if you have any thoughts on the future. For this. Sure. I'd like to give you some of my thoughts on that.
So when the city uses tax increment financing or tax abatement, and in this case, it's tax abatement with the new state law that exists, the city is not allowed to capture the growth of that tax base when it's released at the end of the abatement period or the end of the tax increment financing period. The city has a hard cap of 2% revenue growth in property taxes, and there are exceptions to that cap. One of the exceptions is new growth.
So, for instance, if apartment building like this $12 million was built and there was no abatement and no tax increment financing, the city would be able to capture that additional growth to hold down property taxes for or provide resources for the city to provide services once it's put into an abatement district or a tax increment financing district.
When that period of time expires, the state won't allow it to be counted as new growth, so it can't go to provide additional resources to provide services. So I would say in the last three years since the City Council has offered greater incentives to create housing, we have projects either completed, initiated or proposed to create
about 2400 housing units in the community. Now, that was spurred on by a study that was done by the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation. That said, we needed additional housing units if we wanted to see population growth. And of course, to have a workforce, you need population growth.
Now, even with the growth that's happened over the last three years, recent study completed for the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation says there's still a need for over a thousand more housing units.
Now, that being said, I do plan to recommend to the City Council in the next few months that the city eliminate all incentives, housing incentives outside of the downtown related to market rate housing, either rental or owner occupied, but keep incentives for workforce and affordable housing, rental and owner occupied even outside of the downtown.
I'm also going to recommend that all downtown incentives continue as they currently structured, since they mostly end up in rehabilitated buildings and when it is infill, the city does not have large infrastructure costs because all the infrastructure already exists in the downtown. The greater downtown density also supports getting downtown commercial storefronts filled, and utilizes the excess in certain areas of downtown parking capacity. So there are certain areas where we don't have enough parking, but there are certain areas where we have an overabundance of parking.
And so it's great when a building gets rehabilitated and then there's more people to occupy that parking, or if it's a vacant lot that infill gets built. So there's more people that occupy those parking spaces. And it also supports the commercial businesses in the storefronts.
So I do plan on bringing that information to the council in the next couple of months to make that recommendation that. So, for instance, this project, which is a market rate project, if you were accept my recommendation in the future, we wouldn't be offering incentives for projects like this. Now that doesn't affect this project. Hopefully you'll approve this tonight. I'm recommending you approve it.
This developer, I believe, did all the right things. He knew what the incentives were. He's made an investment and he wants to invest more. I think we ought to support this this project tonight. But I also think that you ought to revisit the concept in the future.
That doesn't mean that that's going to happen, because you're going to be the ones that decide whether it happens or not. But I will be bringing that to you later this year.
Anymore. I had one other addition. When you when you bring that, if there's any way that we could get information on occupancy of the buildings, these all these new apartments that have been built, you know, are people filling them up? Is there waiting lists or, you know, just what has been the demand for those?
That's a tough question to answer because their private developments, I can tell you anecdotally what we're being told by the developers is they are filling up. As a matter of fact, we actually saw one developer act on that, the developer that was doing apartment complex on Cedar Crossroad. He actually accelerated his schedule of building his apartments.
It was multiple buildings, and he did the next building quicker than he originally had represented because he was having such good luck filling the building up. But we can ask all of them and I, you know, it'd be up to them if they tell us or not. I don't know, Jill, if you have, if anybody. Yeah.
We don't we don't have any other than anecdotal about that appears to be going well. I will tell you that every month I meet with the landlord association board of directors.
I've been doing that now probably for about 10 or 12 years, and they have represented to me recently, and most of them are smaller rental owners, and it's mostly existing buildings that they bought that were already apartments. And they have represented to me recently that they are having a harder time getting their units rented. It's taking longer than it used to in the past.
Now I don't remember any of them tell me they they can't rent them, but I do know they have told me that they it's taking longer for them to get tenants in some of their older buildings that they own in the downtown, and not necessarily just in the downtown, but like up on the bluffs and some of the older properties. That's helpful. Thank you.
Thanks. Mr. Mayor. Understand we've done a couple studies here, and I know initially it showed that we're 100 housing units short, which makes, you know, helps in making these decisions and creating these programs. I do think, though, you know, as I've seen the stats is, relatively speaking, Dubuque hasn't been growing from a population standpoint.
And so while we maybe had a need for housing, it appears that, you know, our our focus needs to shift from housing to jobs. I think jobs is what ultimately is going to drive our growth, and then the housing will take care of itself as we go forward.
Here is, as you mentioned, Mike, you know, on elimination of the any incentives on a market rate basis outside of downtown Dubuque. And so, I think, you know, as you get jobs, you get growth, you get expansion in the economy, you get GDP growing, and things just naturally start to take care of itself.
And so that's where I'm really struggling with this, and I'm glad to hear that we're going to talk about it. I'm sure we're going to talk about it in goal setting here. But I'm really struggling with just the continued growth in this area and where we're headed with this one. It just seems and I'm not picking on the developer by any means.
I think we need to look at the program. Overall. I think it's about time and so I'm happy to hear that. But at some point, you know, we've got, I think, put a halt to it and understand where we are from a development standpoint and overall units and absorption of those units.
So we don't over build because the way I see it is, if we are not getting people to relocate to Dubuque, is we're just shifting people around within Dubuque or something, that's fine.
But we don't want to over saturate that and create an abundance of housing stock and especially housing stock just in one specific type, because I do think we've been extremely heavy on apartments versus entry level homes, condos, things of that nature. So that's where I stand on this. So thanks, mayor.
Before I come back to you, Mr. Resnick, anybody else first and then I'll make sure I come back as well. Yeah, I absolutely agree. A focus on jobs is incredibly important as we try and grow our population. I don't debate that at all.
I will say, as somebody who works in primary care and takes care of folks who are of all stages in life and all income levels, that there's a lot of people that can't find the housing they need in Dubuque. And it's not a number that we think have outgrown yet to have more units. And I don't debate a reexamination of how we deliver these options.
I think it is important that we have affordable housing that is that is, you know, owner occupied as far as single family homes. I think that's crucial for us.
I would say specifically just to dial in maybe a specific group of people I hope to capture here in Dubuque would be people who are graduating from our institutions of higher learning, and they get out and they can't afford an apartment because there's not enough or there's not quality housing. And so although that's getting better, I will share that.
That's something I have heard is that we don't have even if somebody could find a job here, maybe they end up living with their parents. Maybe they end up leaving Dubuque and finding a job elsewhere. And so I think there's all different scenarios in which we still need to capture people to grow our population. If they have nowhere to live, that makes it feel like home. I don't think they'll stay. So just my $0.02.
Thanks. Mr. Xavier. Yeah, I would say. I think during budget I asked for that information to get some sort of. You know, account from the people that we've already given these incentives to, to to see what their occupancy is like.
How fast are filling up? You know, for sure the ones on Cedar Crossroad aren't our market rate and our, you know, expensive. You know, a lot of what we've built is, you know, these large complexes. I think I feel like my job is on city council. Decide which of these projects. Should get the incentives. I think we've really went heavy on one side.
And for me to, I think, support a future apartment, multiple unit apartment, it would be downtown in the areas that need infill, that are challenging and that would be, you know, really on the cusp of not happening without it. I don't I don't think this is that scenario here.
I think I don't think I need to wait, you know, for a couple of months to decide that on my own. I think I've seen what's been going on. And as Mike said, you know, I own units. I know it's way, way, way down. Other landlords have told me the same thing.
So, you know, I think we're going to end up potentially in a, in a bad spot with way too many apartment complexes and not enough potential homes for people to, to move into. So I think I'm leaning away from this one. So it's my $0.02. Mr.. Mr.. Back to you. All right. Well, thank you. And, you know, this is kind of the chicken or the egg.
Employment or housing and amenities, you know, so we can argue back and forth about which comes first. But the idea they are linked, I think we can agree to that. And the other thing that's important to me is Mr.
Staver talked about is he'd like to say, you know, as a council, we should have weigh in on this. Well, I have to tell you, we have weighed in this. In fact, this. These are council mandated development criteria that other councils have decided on. Now, if we want to decide on something else.
So when when our team meets with developers, Council told them this is what we'll do. All right. So the development agreed to that. I think we need to follow through with what we said. The city council asked the our staff to do at least until we change it. So because absolutely, you know, we change things if we need to change things.
And it seems that we're getting to that point where we would like to talk about it. Maybe decide on a different type of thing that we need to offer our developers. But as of now this, our staff has worked hard to bring us what we asked for as a council.
And so I have my own ideas about how we might change things as well. But as far that's maybe a couple of months or a couple of weeks or a couple of days away from from what, what we can talk about.
Right now we have a developer who has done everything that the city council has asked them to do. I think we just need to say, well, this is what we said. We're good for our word, and then we can take the next step as we go on and continue to be good to our word. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.
So the one thing that I will absolutely agree with, and what we're hearing here is we really need to gather some new data. I it's getting uncomfortable to make these decisions because things are getting too anecdotal.
We're starting to hear like, well, you know, there's some some apartments are we're hearing some apartments are hard to to lease up. We're we think that we're hearing that there's too many apartments. We think that we're hearing that there's not enough. I really think it's time that we go back to Greater Development Corporation, our partners, anybody who can help us to make sure that we measure as accurately as possible.
What is our situation now? I don't think any of us necessarily expected the incentives to work so well. It's a it's a great problem to have, honestly. I mean, the incentives really worked. Well. We we were asked to provide more incentives for more housing. And within three years, boom, we got a ton of housing.
Now, it was a specific type of housing. It was a lot of multifamily, larger apartment complexes, some smaller apartment complexes, local developers out of out of community developers. So great we had that happen.
But I do think we need to revisit this now, and we need to try and gather as much good data as we possibly can to be able to make the best decision possible. Mike, I do think that in the in the near term, having this change that you're suggesting is a good first step, but I, I doesn't sound to me like we're going to have all that data to be able to make that decision and cement it.
So I'd really like to if we're going to make that change, I think I would support that going forward when you bring that recommendation to us.
But I do want to make sure that we have some good data to be able to move forward with over the next year or two, as we think about what the incentives really need to look like based on what the real occupancy rates are, and is much good information as we can get. Because I do hear anecdotal on both sides. I heard it here tonight, but I hear it when we talk to people in the community too. It really depends on who you're talking to.
So as much as we can to be able to make a data driven decision on this in the long term, I think is going to be really important.
I think we have a good we're starting to have a feeling that we need to make some changes to this, and we also have an incentive to make changes based on state law. So the state law is a big deal. The change that we're going to have coming in January, we need to make sure that we are setting ourselves up successfully for that.
So but as far as tonight goes, I have to agree with those of my colleagues that I've heard tonight that we we have this incentive in place and developer came forward. We I don't have any good evidence right now that we don't need these housing units. You know, that really speaks to me that says absolutely don't do this.
So I will respectfully disagree with those that that might be against it, but I'm going to vote for this as we move forward. That's going to be my position on anything further before we call for the vote. Okay. Well, the motion here before us is to thank you very much, Jill, is to receive and file and adopt this resolution. Adrian, call the roll, please.
Sprang a Staver. Hey. Wessel a. Resnick. A Leyendecker. Nay, Kavanaugh. Russell. That motion passes 5 to 2. Action. Item number three is North American Trainer Association formation flight training at Dubuque Regional airport. Video. Mr. mayor. Mr.. Resnick, I would receive and file and view the video. Second by Leyendecker. By Resnick. Second by Leyendecker. Cool.
Let's watch a video, please. Eric.
I just get a lot of satisfaction out of this formation flying, I really do. So we're here at nada, known as North American Trainers Association. So pretty much what the event is. They'll come here, they'll practice their formation flying here for about a week, and then they head up to Oshkosh.
This is an annual event, and one of its primary mission is to train new guys or guys wanting requesting training or recall. But the other important one is getting ready to fly a big mass formation.
It's important because for safety number one, if people are going to do this, they need to come and do it on a regular basis because it's a perishable skill formation. Flying is. Part of the reason that they chose Dubuque as the locations for it. There's a lot more space for them to be able to do stuff. It's a tower environment, so it's a lot safer for them to go through this.
The airspace itself, if you did it at an international airport or even a big airport, it's hard to fit in all these airplanes in and out. My experience here at Dubuque has always been positive. I mean, number one, the flying, the community, the hotel, the restaurants.
We bring in, like pretty much all of our staff to help out with whatever needs that the pilots would need. We take care of all their parking, all their hanging and all the feeling of the aircraft. One year in 2018, we had a 42 ship flight. We all trained for it here in Dubuque, mentioned plywood and get to know them. They become lifelong friends.
So it's a sort of a reunion in a way.
But it's such a cool event every single year. It's actually one of my favorite things, because you'll hear them flying over the house and you'll be like, oh, it's that week, and you get to go outside and watch them fly over and over again, back and forth all over the city. It's a great time.
So I really appreciate Narda coming to Dubuque and appreciate everything the airport does that week to keep on coming back. They I know they love it here. So that's wonderful thing to have. And thank you very much for that video from the communications department. All right. Motion was to receive and file watch video. Adrian. Frank Staver.
Hi, Wetzel. Resnick. Hi, Leyendecker. Hi, Roussel. Motion passes seven zero. Next are council member reports. I'm sure we've done nothing in the last two weeks. None of us. Yeah. Miss Roussel. Just a reminder that on Saturday, August 29th, at 830, the Friends of Debut Parks are having a park enhancement program.
And we will provide tools and gloves and come and join us and have fun. And if Miss Roussel is organizing it, get ready to work. It's the one thing we know. Real quick, I'll just touch on the Field of Dreams game.
So the minor league game and the major league game were last week, and I just think it was a great opportunity to put us on, you know, not only the local stage, but the national stage and world stage once again. On having the Major League Baseball games return. And we were fortunate enough to have the minor league team return this year, which was a triple A game, which was great publicity.
And then I don't know if many people know, but Wednesday night. So between the minor league and the major league game, there was a high school all star game out there from the top high school prospects that were in attendance. So they got to experience Dubuque in the Midwest region, which was really cool.
I don't know exactly what all states are from, but I think they were from all over the entire country. So just a great opportunity to highlight Dubuque, Dubuque County and us as a region. And obviously they announced the game for next year. So it kind of continues to build momentum. And it's very exciting.
I think the important part is it's really an opportunity for us to have a postcard, a billboard out there, like I said, as wide as worldwide. But I think the youth tournament component that they continue to do out there is really the key component here in youth education and getting those youngsters out for the tournaments and for all that experience.
And so I think that just all that just continues to build momentum, and it's very exciting for all of us to, to to be able to be a part of it. So thanks.
Yeah. Thank you. I look at my calendar. So since the last time we met, I have volunteered for the National Night Out, which happened at Allison Henderson. It's really nice to see all those kids come together and joy that evening. Of course, the police department kind of sponsors that. So they get to know the police department.
There was a helicopter that took off and landed, which really excited a lot of kids. Later that week, I Crescent had their Crescent Community Health Center had their 20th anniversary celebration. And then also that Friday, our mayor pro tem gave a lovely welcoming to folks on art on the river.
So if you want to see some new art that's down by the Mississippi River walk, it's gorgeous. I like the turtles one, so I'll let you go find that one.
And then the next day I volunteered at the Dubuque Fest, which is always fun just talking about folks from coming into town, looking at all the art as well as a food giveaway. So that's all. Thanks. Thank you. Well, I'll tell you what you're going. I had two things down written as Mayor Pro tem, but no, there was more than two, so I had to keep writing. You're a busy man, and. I leave a lot because you're constantly.
Well, no, you leave a couple times, but you leave quite a weight when you're not here. So anyway, I was a Dubuque Fest. I got to choose, as it said, the mayor's choice. I didn't even call you on this. I just made it. So I hope you don't mind.
That my full expectations, you know? Okay, well, anyway, there was so, so many wonderful things. First of all, Dubuque Fest was well attended. It was it was well done as far as far as set up. And it had some great volunteers. And yeah, I just it just loved to be there. And the weather was when I was there, it was good.
I'm not taking credit for that. But I tell you what, it was wonderful to be down there and the art on the river. There's some really interesting. My wife and I just meandered down there and saw so many things when it wasn't raining. And it's really is beautiful this year.
And I was also able to represent the mayor and the citizens of Dubuque for the EPA brownfields welcome. And and again, it was in the paper. So if you get the paper, you know what I'm talking about.
But it's really something important to make sure that the underneath of any kind of economic development, everything from the ground down, is in good shape for these businesses. And the brownfields help us out with this. The other thing I wanted to talk about is I'm on the board of four mounds, and they have had an unbelievably successful year, and their mission is such a high mission for for helping people help themselves.
And they're doing some fantastic things, a lot of planning, growing, making a difference in folks world. So I wanted to mention those things that it was a I did so many things that just filled my heart these last couple of weeks. And so it was a good couple of weeks. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Well, thank you very much.
And just so you know, when you are acting mayor, you do take credit for the weather, okay? So just make sure that you do that from this point forward. You know, let me just say for a moment I appreciate you stepping forward so much.
I actually have been traveling a little bit more this year than in past years, both for mayor reasons and personal reasons. So I do appreciate you stepping in at all those times because you're actually leaving the role of mayor pro tem coming up soon because we rotate it at the desk. So we will have a new mayor pro tem.
I'll just let that be a surprise when the time comes. So we it's on a list. It just rotates automatically. So that's the way it goes, Miss West. But thank you. Yeah. So I had the opportunity to meet with the NAACP Housing Commission to discuss needs as it relates to those who are unhoused in our community.
Also attended the Crescent anniversary event, which was so celebratory. And as somebody who had the opportunity to work at Crescent in the early days, it's incredibly rewarding to see where they are and where they are going. So hats off to all of them.
I also had the chance to go out to Field of Dreams last week, and I have to say, if you believe in divine intervention, the day of the MLB game that was there because the weather was not looking good. The folks who work at Travel Dubuque coordinated with MLB. I just have to say, hats off. We had.
I don't even know how many volunteers from the community, the county, the region come out. Everyone was so friendly and really did a great job of representing Dubuque.
At one point, I heard a woman walk through the corn and say, can you smell the corn? I just it it might sound cheesy, but people were really in a place in which they felt at home and they felt joy. So hats off to everybody. Thanks. All right, well, the only thing as I'll mention, our first of all, welcome to all the college students who are in town. I know it's that time of year. Everybody's coming in. So so welcome to you.
We look forward to welcoming you in person when we get the chance to see you at Farmer's Market and Night Market and all the different places. We're all going to hang out together, so we're glad you're here.
It was great to welcome the EPA region seven administrator Jim Macy, thank you very much for offering that official welcome in the morning. I was able to spend some time with them in the afternoon, and it was great to be able to have that opportunity to have the EPA represented so strongly here in Dubuque. Again, we show very well when they come because we've done a lot of work with brownfield funding.
And finally, you mentioned cheesy in the field of dreams. I literally cried during the national anthem. That place is just so special. And even watching it on Netflix, you just get that feeling.
And I'm so glad for the work that we've all done as a region to to make that game such a success and make that place such a success. We have a closed session, so that'll be our last thing of the night. Here. I'll take a motion, please. Mr. mayor. Miss. I move to go on to closed session. According to chapter 21.51 Code of Iowa to discuss pending litigation and purchase or sale of real estate. Second by line.
Decker got a motion by within the second by Leyendecker. For the record, the the attorneys that the City Council will consult with on the issues to be discussed in closed session is City Attorney and Assistant City attorney Jason Lehmann. Adrian, call the roll, please. Sprang. Staver. Wetzel, a Resnick. Lyon. Decker. Hi, Kavanaugh. Hi, Roussel.
Motion passes seven zero. You're on. Closed session.