At the Jan. 2 meeting of the Clear Lake City Council, Council members approved several resolutions involving the formation of the Winnebago River Watershed Management Coalition, an award of contract for the water tower painting project, financing for two housing developments. Updates on the City Hall renovation and the former Woodford Wheeler building were also given.
Clear Lake Mayor Nelson Crabb attended a December meeting hosted by Cynthia Farmer from the Center for Rural Affairs. Farmer works with the DNR and the USDA in creating watersheds in the state of Iowa. ”You may or may not know, there are several watersheds [in Iowa]…however the Winnebago River does not have a watershed,” Crabb said.
A watershed is an area of land that drains or “sheds” water into a specific waterbody. In this case it is the rainfall and snowmelt from the 13 cities in the five counties that drain into, or are connected to, the Winnebago River. Two of the biggest benefits for forming a watershed management plan are increased water quality and flood damage reduction.
Council members approved participation in the Winnebago River Watershed Management Coalition and agreed to sign the 28E agreement which gives them the freedom to work with and enter into contracts with other governmental bodies.
A resolution was made to award the contract for the painting of the I-35 and 24th St. Water Tower to O & A Classic Coatings from Hurst, Texas. Eleven bids were received and O & A, with their bid of $295,000, was the lowest responsive responsible bidder. “The project construction schedule will call for the project to start in April, maybe a little bit earlier this year, depending on the weather of course,” said City Administrator Scott Flory.
The first of three public hearings was held concerning the ordinance to amend the official zoning and land use maps of the City of Clear Lake to rezone 8.54 acres in the Emerald Edge subdivision from CI-1 (intensive commercial) to RM-20 (medium density multi-family residential) for the building of a 90-unit apartment complex. The project was reviewed and previously approved by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. With no comment from the public the first reading of this ordinance was passed.
Flory also said that the Board of Adjustment needs to approve a height variance because the building will be four stories. “And then, just lastly as a reminder, we just recently started the process on the urban revitalization plan that would provide for ultimately a 10 year 100 percent property tax abatement for the project as an incentive,” Flory said.
“We’ve got a couple of exciting housing opportunities on the docket for tonight,” Flory said as he introduced a resolution that establishes compliance with the IRS code of reimbursement bond regulations. Clear Lake had previously made financial commitments of $400,000 and $500,000 to the S. Shore Estates and the Emerald Place Townhome projects.
“We haven’t improved the development agreement yet but we anticipate doing that very soon for both of these projects,” Flory said. “What we propose to do is make payments to the developer from cash-on-hand funds and then…subsequently issue debt and reimburse ourselves in those funds from that subsequent debt issuance. So that’s exactly what that resolution does.”
Flory said, “It wasn’t too long ago that we were really hurting for any type of hope in housing coming to Clear Lake and now we have in process, at one stage or another three of them, either coming before us or …in actual physical progress. And that’s really good news.”
