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Home My WebLink AboutA002 - Email from Chuck Winkleblack dated March 4, 2014 �y , Page 1 of 3 Fwd: Post construction storm water ordinance Bob Kindred to: Ann Campbell,Ann Campbell, Steve Schainker,John C Joiner 03/04/2014 03:57 PM Cc: Judy K Parks,Diane R Voss Show Details FYI,since you weren't included in the original email. Bob Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: From: "Chuck Winkleblack"<chuck(a,hunziker.com> Date: March 4,2014 at 1:31:30 PM CST To: "Matthew Goodman"<m c-fightingburrito.com>,"Tim Gartin"<timothy.gartin((�amesattorneys.com>, "Amber Corrieri"<amber.corrieri agmail.com>,"Chris Nelson"<nelson.ames(&-outlook.com>, "Peter Orazem"<pforazem ,gmail.com>,"Peter Orazem" <pfo(a,iastate.edu>,gloriabetcherwardl(&,gmail.com, "Tracy Warner"<twarner u,city.ames.ia.us>,"Bob Kindred"<BKindred a city.ames.ia.us>, "Eric Cowles" <ecowles(,�),city.ames.ia.us> Subject: Post construction storm water ordinance To all concerned: After reading through the summary of conclusions for tonight's council meeting I have the following thoughts or comments: We are supportive of the efforts and the ordinance however there still are a number of questions in addition to the ones that are before you tonight. I will start by addressing the ones outlined in the staff report. A. Agree with the staff report that it would be a monumental task to create the design guidelines from scratch so it makes sense to use the IDNR manual B. Agree with staff recommendation but would add some sort of incentive for redevelopment projects. If an incentive is able to be added then you can accomplish two goals. The most efficient use of the land (maximizing the site)and accomplishing what is needed for storm water quantity and quality. Some of the underground storage systems are very expensive. If you don't have a large project it is not economically feasible to do some of those alternative methods. In that case you end up using valuable land for storm water treatment and it under utilizes our land resources. This will be a real dis-incentive for re-purposing some of our older parts of town. C. No problem with the buffer strips,agree with staffs recommendation. D. I understand the need for financial security for the improvements. I prefer to do it at the time of final plat on larger projects and at the time of building permit rather then site plan approval on smaller or individual site proj ects. E. Maintenance concerns are a BIG issue. Staff recommendation is a huge change from current policy and not one that I am in favor of. The mowing and ongoing maintenance should absolutely stay with the home owners association in my opinion. The major projects should remain with the city. The home owners associations have a hard time getting people to be on the boards when the tasks are very simple(mowing, snow removal, lighting,etc..) The monitoring of these improvements is a difficult task that can not be done by the average home owner. This option would ask the residents to pay for their own major improvements within their subdivision as well as paying into the sanitary sewer fund that pays for all of the other neighborhoods in file://C:\Documents and Settings\diane.voss\Local Settings\Temp\notesElEF34\—web5795.... 3/4/2014 Page 2 of 3 town. These new subdivisions will have a much better system for the environment to begin with(that they are paying for up front)and then they are being asked to pay twice in the future. If the city maintains its current policy of having the residents pay for the day to day maintenance and the city pay for large capital projects that seems fair since the fund that everyone pays into pays for the capital improvements. If these improvements are installed correctly and are functioning correctly they will need maintenance over time,that is why the exist!! Not knowing what some of these costs will be in the future makes it very hard to put money aside by the home owners association. F. I have had a hard time getting cost estimates on what the bond will cost. There seems to be little historical data on this type of bond. There are many for streets,pipes,etc.. not as many for growing native grasses and bio-swales. It is an additional cost that will be paid by the home owners and added to the cost of the housing. I do understand the need to secure the improvements and see that they are correctly installed. G. We are in agreement with this but want some clarification on the definition. Is the 3 feet above the 100 year water surface elevation calculated from the top of the window well or from the bottom of the window that sets within the window well?? If it is the first one that is not an issue,if it is the latter it is a problem. H. It is my belief that some waiver provision should be included but not sure the best way to implement it. I agree with the concept but not sure how the fees in lieu will be calculated. This will mostly be for redeveloping areas so don't think it will be used all that often but do agree that some provision in the code would be helpful. 1. I think that the waiver process will be used very in frequently. It may be very important in helping some unusual cases or projects get off the ground. My preference would be to have this come before the council for resolution. To appoint a board that will rarely be used does not seem very effective. Let the municipal engineer and the developers engineer make the case before the council and let the council decide. I have a number of concerns about the specific language in the actual ordinance itself. Hopefully we will have time to go through that and work out the language to benefit all. It is also important to remember that this will be implemented the same time and for the first time as the conservation ordinance. There will most certainly be things that need to be modified when we move this from a concept to actual practice. Does the data exist on some of the other ordinances from other surrounding communities? It seems like we do that a lot when looking at ordinances regarding zoning, land use and many other topics. Tracy and Pat have mentioned that there are a number of them out there. Is ours more or less comprehensive or costly then the others. Does it not make sense to compare with others?? If you like I can discuss my specific concerns about the language issues at the council meeting this evening or we can save that for the 25th when the ordinance is scheduled to come back to council. We have been working on this a long time but it is in all of our best interest to spend the time to get it right so that we don't have to come back very many times to modify it. The reason the questions are coming up now is that we are planning on implementing many of these things in the subdivisions along Grant Ave. Our engineers also have several questions regarding the interpretation of the specific ordinance. Thanks Charles E. Winkleblack, CRB Broker Associate Hunziker&Associates, Realtors 105 S. 16th Street Ames, IA 50010 515-239-8606 office 515-290-7007 mobile Chuck(o)hunziker.com Licensed in the State of Iowa This e-mail, including attachments, is the property of Hunziker & Associates, Realtors, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.0 2510-2521, file://C:\Documents and Settings\diane.voss\Local Settings\Temp\notesElEF34\—web5795.... 3/4/2014 Page 3 of 3 is confidential, and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any retention, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Please reply to the sender that you have received the message in error, and then please delete. Thank you. file://C:\Documents and Settings\diane.voss\Local Settings\Temp\notesElEF34\—web5795.... 3/4/2014