Des Moines city leaders have presented a series of recommendations to notify neighborhood associations of news and developments that could affect them.
The issue of the city improving neighborhood notification came about last year after Marty Mauk, chairman of the Des Moines Neighbors group, asked the City Council to form a committee of city and neighborhood leaders to try to solve the problem.
City Manager Rick Clark responded in the fall by forming a committee of about a dozen city staff, elected officials and neighborhood representatives.
The issue reached a peak last summer when an estimated 200 people attended a south-side neighborhood meeting to discuss a low-income apartment complex slated for construction on McKinley Avenue. Many residents of that neighborhood, Watrous South, said they had been unaware the city had been looking at the project since early in the year.
The proposal was scheduled to go to the Planning and Zoning Commission for consideration the next day, but it was rescheduled for a later meeting because of neighbors’ opposition. Eventually, the project was scrapped and developers decided instead to build on the far east edge of the city.
Similarly, residents of two east-side neighborhoods felt they learned too late in the process that city officials were exploring whether to close streets in their area to increase capacity of a Union Pacific rail yard. A final decision still has not been made on creating the proposed dead-end streets.
The city’s report on the notification issue indicates the committee believed that neighborhood notifications could be timelier and that email addresses should be updated for association leadership. The report also states that members discussed the current postcard notification system and the possibility of expanding it so that residents living beyond the 250-foot limit were notified of proposed projects on nearby properties.
It recommends implementing steps over two phases — the first in the next 90 days and the second within 12 months. Some of those steps include improving the city’s website, creating a citywide meeting calendar and improving the city’s cable channel.
“I would say we got 90 percent of what we wanted,” Mauk said at a Northeast Neighbors meeting Feb. 19. “ Once this gets implemented, it should solve the problem.”
He added that neighborhood leaders must take responsibility to learn more by going to the city’s website for information and signing up for email alerts there.
Clark said when he formed the committee the goal was to ensure residents were better informed.
“One objective is to make sure people know what’s going on,” he said.
The issue of the city improving neighborhood notification came about last year after Marty Mauk, chairman of the Des Moines Neighbors group, asked the City Council to form a committee of city and neighborhood leaders to try to solve the problem.
City Manager Rick Clark responded in the fall by forming a committee of about a dozen city staff, elected officials and neighborhood representatives.
The issue reached a peak last summer when an estimated 200 people attended a south-side neighborhood meeting to discuss a low-income apartment complex slated for construction on McKinley Avenue. Many residents of that neighborhood, Watrous South, said they had been unaware the city had been looking at the project since early in the year.
The proposal was scheduled to go to the Planning and Zoning Commission for consideration the next day, but it was rescheduled for a later meeting because of neighbors’ opposition. Eventually, the project was scrapped and developers decided instead to build on the far east edge of the city.
Similarly, residents of two east-side neighborhoods felt they learned too late in the process that city officials were exploring whether to close streets in their area to increase capacity of a Union Pacific rail yard. A final decision still has not been made on creating the proposed dead-end streets.
The city’s report on the notification issue indicates the committee believed that neighborhood notifications could be timelier and that email addresses should be updated for association leadership. The report also states that members discussed the current postcard notification system and the possibility of expanding it so that residents living beyond the 250-foot limit were notified of proposed projects on nearby properties.
It recommends implementing steps over two phases — the first in the next 90 days and the second within 12 months. Some of those steps include improving the city’s website, creating a citywide meeting calendar and improving the city’s cable channel.
“I would say we got 90 percent of what we wanted,” Mauk said at a Northeast Neighbors meeting Feb. 19. “ Once this gets implemented, it should solve the problem.”
He added that neighborhood leaders must take responsibility to learn more by going to the city’s website for information and signing up for email alerts there.
Clark said when he formed the committee the goal was to ensure residents were better informed.
“One objective is to make sure people know what’s going on,” he said.
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