Updated at 9:05 p.m. CDT April 5

According to unofficial results from the Story County Auditor’s office, Ames residents voted Tuesday to keep City Council terms at their four-year length, instead of shortening them to two years.

Out of 3,938 votes, 58 percent favored keeping the four-year terms.

Voters also overwhelmingly approved an increase in the city’s hotel/motel tax, from 5 percent to 7 percent. Almost 80 percent of voters favored that change.

A petition signed by mostly ISU students had put the term length issue on the ballot for Tuesday’s special election. Organizers had said the shorter terms would make city government more accessible to ISU students, who often don’t live in Ames for more than four or five years.

They also said the city government does not adequately address student interests, creating the need for students to win seats on the council. Laws like those capping the number of unrelated people who can live in a home and restricting outdoor furniture were cited as examples of legislation unfair to students.

Concern about the nature of the town-gown relationship had also blossomed after a riot in Campustown in April 2004, at the end of Iowa State’s annual Veishea celebration, that caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage. A task force and commission created in the aftermath of the riot both concluded that disputes, perceived or real, between short-term and long-term residents of Ames needed to be addressed more fully.

Opponents of the shorter terms argued that the City Council is already accessible to anybody who chooses to run, that more campaigns would distract council members from governing and that two years was too short a period to learn the intricacies of the position.