City Beat: Council issues RFP on red-light photo system

Photo red light system

After a lengthy debate at the April 2 City Council meeting, a 7-2 vote approved the request for proposal for a pilot photo red light system. City Manager Tom Finnie said the move does not mean the photo system recommended by the Governmental Relations Committee to discourage red-light violators will be implemented, but it is simply an RFP to look at the city's options.

"All we're doing with the bill at this point is asking for the vendors to come forward and tell us exactly what it is that we are going to have so then we could discuss it in an informed and enlightened way ... so that the public will know exactly what is being proposed," Councilman Tom Carlson added.

The proposed system, which requires pictures to be taken of the rear of the car, would cover between four and eight city intersections.

Several citizens spoke in opposition to the bill and the use of the cameras, stating it would be a violation of privacy. Mayor Lee Gannaway and Councilman Bob Vanaman voted against the bill.

Drury, Mid-Town plans

In two separate bills and votes, council unanimously approved the adoption of both the updated Mid-Town Neighborhood plan as an element of the city's development master plan and the Drury University campus master plan as an element of the city's development Comprehensive Plan.

City staff member Brendan Griesemer, who along with Drury's vice president for administration Raymond Worley presented Drury's plan to council, said the two plans "strike a balance between the needs of Drury's physical expansion as well as preserving the core areas of the neighborhood."

Worley said, "In the 10-year agreement, we will not go any further north than the properties we currently own."

Mid-Town Neighborhood Association President Ken Williams and Vice President Paula Ringer also spoke to council in support of these two bills and expressed their thanks to Drury for its cooperation. Ringer told council the agreements are "a breakthrough in our relationship with Drury."

Finnie added that now there are written and council-approved master plans for all major city institutions. "I think that's a remarkable accomplishment," he said.

Cell towers delay

Council voted unanimously to approve an amendment of the Land Development Code that extends by 120 days the administrative delay for the acceptance and processing of applications for conditional use permits and building permits for telecommunications towers within the city limits.

The passage delays all permit drafting and adoption regarding cellular telecommunications antenna-supporting structures and towers while the issue is under study.

In other action, the resolution bill to permit septic tanks on less than three acres of land failed by a 6-3 vote, with Gannaway, Vanaman and Councilman Bob Chancellor voting in favor of the bill.

16 acres of rezoning bills

Of the five bills up for public hearing, four were rezoning bills that would rezone a total of about 16 acres. The largest rezoning would be for nine acres east of Kansas Expressway and south of Bennett Street from both a planned development and single-family residential district to a planned development district. It would allow for expansion at The Manor at Elfindale and would require a three-foot widening of both sides of Kansas Expressway.

Another bill would rezone about five acres owned by Drury University from a single-family residential and general manufacturing district to a government and institutional use district for expansion by the university.

Also, one-third of an acre at 3020 E. Battlefield Road may be rezoned from a single-family residential district to an office district.

The other public hearing bill would rezone about 1.5 acres at the U.S. Highway 65 and Evans Road interchange and annex about two acres of private property at the same intersection. Both parcels would be used for the extension of Evans Road and the Southeast Development Plan. Staff recommends approval of both of the latter bills.

Boonville Streetscape grant

Council heard a first reading bill that would authorize Finnie to accept a $322,500 transportation enhancement grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation for phase II of the Boonville Streetscape, which Finnie said would "link the historic square to Jordan Valley Park and ... the governmental complex and then up to Commercial and west into Jordan Valley Park."

The bill states that the total project cost will be $413,500, meaning the city will pay $91,000 of its own money, which Finnie said was budgeted from the Jordan Valley Park funding.

Another first reading bill would amend the budget for the Public Works Department for fiscal year 2000-2001 in the amount of $570,000 for the purchase of a liner in the north ravine landfill area.

And in a nearly $3.5 million amendment to the Public Works Department budget, also heard as a first reading bill, $117,500 would be used for the relocation of a sewer line in Jordan Valley Park; $300,000 for the removal of phosphorous chemicals; $1 million for two land purchases totaling 93 acres; $1.2 million for rehabilitation to reduce infiltration and inflow in the sanitary sewer collection system; and $850,000 to advance construction of the Phase III Bio-Solids Improvements.