October 5, 2021 at 5:00 PM - Legislative and Economic Development Committee Meeting
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1. Open Meeting
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2. Roll Call
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3. Items of Business
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3.A. Provide a recommendation to the City Council on renewing the City's membership with Southeast Nebraska Development District.
Discussion:
City Administrator Tom Ourada reported that our membership with SENDD is useful at times and at other times is not. At this time, Ourada believes that it is useful as they are doing a good job with the Downtown Revitalization project. His recommendation is to renew the membership.
Action(s):
No Action(s) have been added to this Agenda Item.
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3.B. Provide a recommendation to the City Council on entering into an agreement with gWorks to develop a redistricting map for the City's election wards.
Discussion:
City Administrator Tom Ourada recapped the 2020 census situation and the need to redistrict the city's election wards. We cannot just tweak the wards as we have to balance the minority and the majority in each ward. This will cause a big change in the election wards, which could also cause changes to the Council positions. Due to the huge changes, this redistricting could cause citizen concern, which hiring a third party to develop the redistricting map would help to avoid.
Action(s):
No Action(s) have been added to this Agenda Item.
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3.C. Provide a recommendation to the City Council on enacting Ordinance 2141: An ordinance relating to accessory buildings in the A-1 Agricultural District.
Discussion:
City Administrator Tom Ourada discussed the restriction on A1-District accessory buildings not being larger than their residence. Farmers who have large machinery or multiple animals can't build a large barn or building to accommodate those things. This ordinance will remove the size restriction for A-1 but leaves the rest of the accessory building regulations in tact.
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No Action(s) have been added to this Agenda Item.
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3.D. Discuss working with Vacanti Municipal Consulting Services to explore the concept of a sister city.
Discussion:
City Administrator Tom Ourada explained that Al Vacanti with Vacanti Municipal Consultant Services partnered Omaha with a sister city in Italy. Ourada spoke with Vacanti at the League Conference about getting a sister city for Crete. However, his idea was for Crete to partner with a Czech city to represent our Czech population. The concern of alienating a larger portion of our population was discussed. Exploring other countries, as well, that would represent other cultures in our community was brought up as a solution.
Action(s):
No Action(s) have been added to this Agenda Item.
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4. Officers' Reports
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Discussion:
The status of the Downtown Revitalization project was discussed. Councilperson Ryan Hinz spoke with a participating business owner who was concerned about the slow process impacting the prices of the projects due to rising costs of materials and about certain parts of the qualifying stipulations, i.e. making new windows wood-framed to be historically correct. Ways to speed up the process and meet deadlines were brought up and considered.
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5. Adjournment
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