The most heavily discussed topic at the Ames City Council meeting dealt with waiving requirements of a major subdivision.

Bud Ely, the owner of 1817 East Lincoln Way, would like to split his land into two lots: three storage buildings on one lot and a U-Haul rental facility on the other.

For this split of the land to happen, a major subdivision is required. Ely asked for a waiver of these requirements for the proposed subdivision.

The main concerns of the subdivision are sidewalks and sewer facilities.

According to the municipal code, in an industrially zoned area, there must be a sidewalk on at least one side of the street. Carnegie Avenue, the road east of Ely’s lot, does not have a sidewalk on either side.

Also in the municipal code, it is said, “Any lot or area of land created by subdivision shall be served by sanitary sewer facilities in a manner prescribed by City plans and specifications.” This would require there to be sewer facilities added to the land which holds the storage units.

The owner is asking for a waiver on the grounds that a sidewalk leading to nowhere is not necessary in a industrially zoned area and there is no need for sewer facilities in storage buildings.

The council decided they would prefer to look at these issues separately.

The council approved the 2013/2014 Ames Annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition sculptures.

The Public Art Team showed artists, pictures, sizes and alternates for the proposed art that will be located around Ames.

Many council members said they were pleased with the art and all members of the council approved.

Another resolution was approved, also in a timely manner. The resolution consisted of a waiver of fees for meters surrounding 516 Kellogg Ave. for the Story County Commission of Ames Veterans Affairs event on March 15, 2013.

The resolution awarding $105,753 to RSM McGladrey of Des Moines to purchase Integrated Network Storage Solution was also approved.

Changes will be happening in the attorney department of Ames. Two of three attorneys will be leaving their positions this year, leaving one attorney to handle all city prosecutions.

The resolution to authorize the retention of outside counsel to assume city prosecutions was approved by all members of the city council.

The last subject of discussion on the agenda was dealing with administration. A resident satisfaction survey is in the process of being created for the city of Ames.

The council was asked to propose questions to be put in the survey. Since there is limited space in the survey, the council had to choose two questions out of many.

The focus of the survey discussion wasn’t on the questions, but rather on whether or not paper versions should still be sent to citizens of Ames.

Council members wondered if it was worth spending a great amount of money on paper versions of the survey when there is also an online version.