The planning and housing department work plan was the major discussion point last evening.

The planning and housing department work plan is a list of 26 city council planning projects.

Among these 26 projects are the Campustown facade grant program and the greek house parking requirements.

The Campustown facade grant program’s initial step is to work with the CAA and design consultant to deign requirements and program guidelines.

The next step of this project would be to start the pilot project.

The greek house parking requirements project would address the situation where additional parking would need to be developed when fraternities and sororities expand or are replaced by a new building.

The city staff asked the council if the council would like the options for the greek house parking requirements brought to the public first.

“We can either give you the options first or try them out with the public before we bring them to you,” said Steve Schainker, city manager for the city of Ames. “We want to know which one you would rather see.”

Mayor Ann Campbell said she thinks there is some benefit to giving the public the options first.

“With this, I think it’s best if we go through the ideas first,” said Matthew Goodman, council member. “This will prevent having to go back and forth so many times.”

Kelly Diekmann, director of planning and housing for the city of Ames, said the city staff would like to get viable options before going out to the public or going to council.

“We need to go out to the students and tell them that this is going to be brought to council,” said Alexandria Harvey, student representative for the City Council. “I want to avoid a miscommunication like there has been in the past.”

There was also discussion of adding another person to staff to be head of the planning and housing department work plan.

“Right now I’m not recommending we hire a person for this position,” Schainker said. “The key part is to work on the priorities that you want first.”

Schainker said every time a city council member has a referral, the city staff will bring up the planning and housing department work plan’s list of projects.

“We are going to start working at prioritizing the list,” Schainker said. “The main reason we would need to hire a new person for city staff would be the land use policy.”

Bob Kindred, assistant city manager of the city of Ames, said that the staff just wants to know what the City Council wants for the public engagement process.

No final decisions were made for the public engagement process. The City Council agreed to leave this decision to the city staff.