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Home My WebLink About~Master - Packet of Communications to Council dated July 18, 2025 City Office 515.239.5105 main 515 Clark Ave. P.O. Box 811 515.239.5142 fax Ames, IA 50010 www.CityofAmes.org MEMO To: Mayor and City Council From: Jeramy Neefus, Principal Clerk, City Manager’s Office Date: July 18, 2025 Subject: Packet of Communications to Council Listed below are the communications to the City Council known to staff as of July 18, 2025: 1. Keith Abraham, Parks and Recreation Director – July 22, 2025 RE: ISU Football Tailgating in Stuart Smith Park 515.239.5342 Gabriele.edwards@cityofames.org 310 East 9th Street Ames, IA 50010 www.cityofames.org City of Ames Parks and Recreation TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Keith Abraham, Parks and Recreation Director DATE: 7/22/2025 RE: ISU Football Tailgating in Stuart Smith Park On August 4, 2024, Jeff Bryant, 220 S. Riverside Drive, sent an email to the Mayor and City Council regarding concerns with tailgating in Stuart Smith Park during ISU football games. This email is included as Attachment A. Mr. Bryant witnessed a small amount of RV and old school bus parking on S. Riverside for the purpose of hosting tailgating events in Stuart Smith Park. He expressed two concerns related to this activity: 1. The owners of the RV and the bus start parking on S. Riverside the week prior to game day to be assured a parking spot. Additionally, sometimes it takes a day or so for the vehicles to go away after the game, and it is difficult for them to turn around as S. Riverside is a dead-end street. The vehicle owners periodically move their vehicles to comply with street parking rules. 2. Their tailgating parties in the park are respectful. However, Stuart Smith Park has a non-alcohol policy and there are no restroom facilities. One group attracts 50 to 60 people or more. Furthermore, property owners witness alcohol consumption and the tree line of Ioway Creek is being used as a substitute for restrooms. City Council referred this topic to staff to investigate if anything could be done to address these issues. There was discussion about adding portable restrooms or restricting parking, but no actions were taken. After having a conversation about this with the City Manager in March 2025, I reached out to Mr. Bryant to get feedback on how the 2024 season went as it related to his concerns. He indicated that things were better than in 2023 and some of the issues seemed to resolve themselves. I asked if there is anything the City could possibly do to improve game days on S. Riverside (e.g. implement no parking on S. Riverside on game days). Mr. Bryant liked that idea as most, if not all residents on the street, have off-street parking. He suggested that putting temporary barricades or signage in some locations would help as people will drive down the street and have a hard time turning around when there is no place to park. Mr. Bryant cited one example where a neighbor had their vehicle hit while parked in their driveway as someone used the driveway to turn around. 515 Clark Ave. After this conversation, Mr. Bryant sent a follow-up email indicating he and his neighbors support no parking on game days. His comments and rationale are shown in Attachment B. If Council wants to pursue this request, it can refer this issue to staff and the Traffic Engineer will contact property owners to determine the interest for no parking on ISU Football games days. The Traffic Engineer can then bring a recommendation back to City Council for action. 515 Clark Ave. ATTACHMENT A JeffBryant<jeff.ames@msn.com> City Council and Mayor Thompson, Joshua;Abraham, Keith;deblee58@yahoo.com [External Email] To whom it may concern, My name is Jeff Bryant, I live on the dead end on S Riverside Dr immediately adjacent to the flood buy out area/Stuart Smith Park. I am writing on behalf of my neighbors and myself. As neighbors we are very accustomed to ISU Football weekends in our neighborhood. Generally speaking, it really goes very well and we consider the heightened activity as just part of living where we do. The City has always been receptive and helpful if we have any concerns. That being said, last year we have witnessed a small amount of RV and old school bus parking on our street for the purpose of hosting tailgating events in our adjacent park area. We have 2 main issues concerning this activity: 2. The owners of the RV and bus start parking on our street the week prior to game day to be assured a parking spot. Additionally sometimes it takes a day or so for the vehicles to go away after the game and it is difficult for them to turn around on our dead end street. They periodically visit here to move their vehicles to comply with street parking rules. 3. Their tailgating parties in the park are respectful. However, Stuart Smith Park has a non-alcohol policy and there are no restroom facilities. One group attracts 50 to 60 people or more. We witness alcohol consumption and the tree line of Ioway Creek being used as a substitute for restrooms. ISU has designated RV and bus areas available for tailgating along with the Randal property private parking. We feel this is where this activity should be taking place. We don’t want to see our street/park area becoming more and more popular for this type of tailgating, once the word gets out there is free tailgating spots on our street and park. Also the parking activity taking place ahead of and after game day is disruptive to our quiet street. We realize game day activity is very hard to regulate. We would appreciate your comments on this issue and if you have any insight as to a solution. I did have a conversation with Joshua Thompson from Parks and Rec concerning this and he suggested I email Council and our neighborhood representative. I have included them in this email as well as Keith Abraham. 515 Clark Ave. Thank you Jeff Bryant 220 S Riverside Dr 515-290-4695 515 Clark Ave. ATTACHMENT B Keith, This is Jeff Bryant with a follow up to our recent phone conversation concerning ISU football activities in our neighborhood. I realize street parking is not in your normal scope of work, however we discussed ISU football street parking on our street (the dead end portion of S Riverside Dr). You intrigued me with a possible notion of prohibiting all street parking during football Saturdays on our dead end portion of our street. I took the idea back to my neighbors and received an overwhelming show of support for the concept. I visited with just about all of my effected neighbors. The majority were very enthusiastic to the idea and the balance simply thought it was a reasonable idea, no one objected. Depending on how you look at it, there are about 13 homes that touch the dead end portion of the street. The parking ban would prohibit about 15-17 vehicles from parking. All of the 13 homes have adequate off street parking and could adjust to the Saturday parking ban. Most of us enjoy football Saturdays and all of the activity that goes along with it. What we have come to hate is the congested traffic, constant vehicles turning around in our driveways due to the dead end. We constantly experience poor and rude parking practices that regularly require enforcement and occasional towing. Over the years we have experienced some hit and run damage to our vehicles and minor property damage due to careless vehicles maneuvering out of our dead end street. What makes our situation different is the fact we are on a dead end not a normal pass through street. We would very much appreciate, the City giving some consideration to this concept and would be happy to give our input. A football Saturday parking ban would potentially take the dread out of football Saturdays for us on S Riverside. Thanks for taking my email! Jeff Bryant 515-290-4695