The Ames City Council initiated the annexation of 154 acres, approved a request to annex 36 acres from the Iowa State Research Park and added a European city as a sister city during their meeting Tuesday evening. 

In January, the council initiated a voluntary annexation of around 400 acres in north Ames, including 154 acres that include the Ames Golf and Country Club (AGCC) and the Irons Subdivision. 

According to city documents, as of May 6, 22 property owners in 24 of the 39 parcels have consented to annexation, which comprises around 93% of the AGCC and Irons Subdivision land area. 

The council unanimously approved the initiation of an 80/20 annexation for the 154 acres. The process, outlined in Iowa Code Section 368, allows for a city to annex a territory as long as 80% of the total land area is voluntarily annexed to prevent islands and create uniform city boundaries. 

Several residents in opposition to the annexation told the council during public comment to consider the cost of changing from a septic tank to Ames’ sewage system and the local benefits of their homeowners association. 

“If I had a crystal ball, I would have never supported this 11 years ago when we put this in place because of what’s happened… Do these people out there care about those properties tying into the sewer?” Ward. 2 Rep. Tim Gartin said, motioning toward the audience. “I’m not convinced they care, and I’m not convinced that I care.”

Ames City Planner Kelly Diekmann said the city’s standard is for all new property to be connected to the sanitary sewer system.

“It’s not that the water is polluted and undrinkable or something like that, it’s just about the water quality of Ada Hayden with a higher amount of phosphorus loading from septic systems versus having that completely removed from the watershed and going into our sewer system,” Diekmann said. 

One solution the council could pursue is allowing residents to connect to the system when their septic tank needs to be replaced. Diekmann said connecting to the Ames system later would be cheaper than a septic system replacement, which Gartin called a “common sense resolution.”

Diekmann will return to the council later this summer to present a “complete picture.”

The council also unanimously approved a request from the Iowa State University Research Park to initiate a voluntary annexation of over 36 acres south of the park that is used for agricultural production. 

This measure is also an 80/20 annexation and will total approximately 40 acres and includes around 4 acres of a farmstead. 

Ames adds second sister city 

The council unanimously approved a partner city cooperation agreement with Podujeva, Kosovo, which is a municipality with 71,000 residents and is around 15 miles north of the nation’s capital.

The cooperation will give the two cities more opportunities, including an cultural exchanges with Ames High School, police trainings and economic partners, according to Ames International Partner Cities Association President Karla McCollum and past President Cindy Hicks.

“They are offering free land, tax free and trained employees for any business in Ames that wants to expand to Podujeva, Kosovo and they are hoping that they can expand here too” Hicks said.

In 2013, a partner state agreement with entered into between Kosovo and Iowa, and the European nation has opened a consulate in Des Moines. There are currently nine city relationships between Kosovo and Iowa, according to city documents. 

Podujeva joins Koshu City, Japan, as a sister city to Ames, which was established in 1993. 

Additional measures

The council unanimously accepted a strategic report on homelessness in Ames and Story County, which city staff will use to work with other ASSET funders to identify priority items.

The council unanimously approved measures approving preliminary plans for the Daley Park Splash Pad Project, the Ada Hayden Heritage Park Path Replacement Project and the Parks and Recreation Maintenance Expansion Project.

At the beginning of the meeting, Haila proclaimed Thursday as Peace Officers’ Memorial Day, May 23-24 as Poppy Days and May 18-24 as National Public Works Week.