City Council approves extension for site certification of Avenue of the Saints Development Park

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Soon the Avenue of the Saints Development Park just off of Highway 18 will become a state-certified development site.

But not soon enough to meet a city deadline, so Tim Fox, executive director of the Charles City Area Development Corp., requested a month-long extension to get the 75 acres of real estate certified by the state of Iowa.

The industrial park is located on South Grand Avenue and the CCADC will maintain, market and attempt to sell the property after receiving $2.156 million from the city to be able to purchase it.

One of the requirements by the city was to have the site state-certified by Nov. 1. The City Council approved the extension by one month to Dec. 2 at a regular meeting on Monday.

The holdup in getting the site certified is two-fold and involves the 0.81 acres of wetland that has been identified on the property. The first item deals with threatened and endangered species that may reside in the wetland.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has requested more intensive research to determine if there are any of the 30 endangered plants and animals that are native to Floyd County that may reside in the wetland.

“We did a site habitat preliminary study and it came back that they wanted a full threatened and endangered species study,” said Fox.

The second item was the jurisdiction of a wetland determination from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Fox said that jurisdiction has been determined and now it goes to the Environmental Protection Agency for 21-day review and public comment period.

If the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determines the area is under its jurisdiction as a wetland, then that area will have to be protected from any development, or else the wetland would need to be mitigated, such as by developing similar wetlands elsewhere that falls under the same statute.

“We anticipate that that will be forthcoming on the week of Nov. 18th,” said Fox. “I think unless something unforeseen happens, we’re right on schedule.”

The council also held a public hearing to amend the South Grand Urban Renewal Plan to include the Avenue of the Saints Development Park. That amendment was passed and then the council also gave the go-ahead to authorize an internal advance of $250,000 for funding of that project for an amount not to exceed $2.5 million.

City Administrator Steve Diers said about $250,000 is needed for capitalization costs and borrowing costs on the $2.156 million that will be used to purchase the certified site property. The advance will come out of the city’s general fund and be repaid by incremental property taxes received from the urban renewal area.

“This gives us the authority to not only transfer that money and use it, but then reimburse ourselves down the road,” said Diers.

A second reading of an ordinance to amend 10- and 12-inch water meter access rates was OK’d. Current code only goes up to 8 inches, but Valero will need use of a fee set for a 10-inch meter starting in December.

Starting Jan. 1, 2020, the 10-inch meter charge will be a monthly fee of $674.30.

A second part of that ordinance increases the surcharge for out-of-town users of city water from 15% to 50% of the amount over what in-town residents are charged.

A parking lot paving requirement was waived by the council that will affect 1105 South Grand Avenue, the new location of the Bread of Life Market. Jesse Marzen, on behalf of Bread of Life owner Shelly Tilton, requested a two-year waiver to not have to pave the property. The justification for that waiver was because ownership of the property was in probate and the Bread of Life is a non-profit organization that does not have the funds to pave the parking area.

The city’s no parking requirements for four areas in town were amended in the city’s traffic code after council approval.

With construction of the new law enforcement center, the county is requesting that the no parking zone on the north side of Court Street between Main and Jackson Street be eliminated and replaced with “Law Enforcement Parking Only” signs. That council approved that measure in the resolution.

The no parking designation on the west side of South Jackson Street from Court Street and then 35 feet south was eliminated because the area has been vacated and conveyed to the county.

The parking area that was prohibited on the east of North Jackson Street between Blunt and Ferguson Street is now allowed.

The west side of North Jackson Street, from the centerline of Blunt Street to 100 feet north was listed as a no-parking zone. That has now been changed to 50 feet after the council approved the resolution.