The Ames City Council will be discussing new apartment buildings, street vendors and transportation at its Oct. 27 meeting.

The council will be holding a hearing for the approval of three new apartment buildings at 4710 Mortensen Road.

These three buildings will be built on the 1.7-acre parcel of land that was recently rezoned from community commercial/residential to floating suburban residential medium-density. The rezoning allows for one-family homes or apartments with up to 10 people to be built. The applicant, Westowne Apartments, is hoping to receive approval for 35 units. These new buildings would hold 115 bedrooms for an average of 3.3 bedrooms per unit.

A change in the municipal code for on-street vendors is being proposed due to complaints and issues with language in the ordinance.

These changes would include limiting where vendors can set up to allow for a four-foot walkway, limiting the noise level of carts that play music, limiting illuminated signage and allowing for 24-hour-a-day operations.

The code changes would include vending carts, vending persons, mobile vending vehicles and sidewalk sales.

The current code does not work well for both the city and vendors, warranting the change in code to include more than definitions. 

The Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency is seeking $2,500 to pay for a facilitator to help meet the demands of the communities that the agency serves. The agency is a door-to-door transit service that runs in Boone, Dallas, Jasper, Madison, Marion, Story and Warren counties.

The facilitator would help run conversations between human service agencies and transportation providers about how the agency is working and what can be improved. The two groups hope to make a plan to better accommodate riders.