Stutsman: OK well we have Rick with us and are you ready to show us a demonstration on Land Use Tool? I can give you a preface to the demonstration. Jim Giglierano from the Department of Natural Resources actually has the system.
Dvorak: I've got some of the stuff to put the system together, but he's scheduled to be here at 10:00 because I didn't know how long this meeting was going to take so I can preface what we're going to show you today or we can wait until 10:00 and then you can do the presentation.
Lacina: Do it all at once.
Stutsman: I think it would be better to wait until 10:00. I guess I didn't realize he was scheduled to come in at 10:00.
Dvorak: I didn't know how else to do it, because I didn't know...
Stutsman: Right and we never know how these meetings are going to run.
Bolkcom: It's a reasonable guess.
Dvorak: I agree.
Stutsman: We have business from the County Attorney. Do you want to go into executive session on that now Pat? Should we do that?
County Attorney Pat White: I need Bob and Duane for that.
Stutsman: I saw Duane.
White: Duane is here.
Lacina: I move that we go into executive session for the purposes of discussing labor negotiations.
Bolkcom: Before we do that could we take care of the public, if anybody is here from the public to speak.
Stutsman: I already asked that.
Bolkcom: Oh, you already did. I'm sorry. Sorry about that.
Stutsman: I didn't say report from the County Attorney. I'm assuming Pat that you didn't have it.
White: I do have one scheduling thing that I want to alert you to. I've mentioned to you before we were wanting to do an executive session to give you a report on litigation and I've been watching my schedule and yours with Jo and Carol and we've now tentatively set this for Tuesday the 21st of October. My estimate would be that we'd probably need an hour and conceivably longer depending on how much discussion the 5 of you will be interested in. So I tried to find a meeting day where we'd be able to predict we'd have at least an hour ahead of noon. Obviously I'd prefer to do it at a time when all of you are available. The 21st looked pretty good. If for anybody that turns out to be a problem, it's easy enough for us to move.
Stutsman: Well that gives us plenty of time to plan accordingly, so I'm glad...
White: 2 weeks from Tuesday.
Stutsman: Is there a motion to go into executive session.
Lacina: Move.
Bolkcom: Second.
Stutsman: It's been moved by Lacina and seconded by Bolkcom to go into executive session for the purposed of discussing the Sheriff's Department Employee labor negotiating contract. Any further discussion?
Jordahl: I just wanted to encourage anybody who wanted to stay for the GIS discussion and presentation later that they're welcome to, but (inaudible).
Stutsman: Roll call.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: UNIT RECONSIDERATION REQUEST BY IBPAT REGARDING SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES
Motion by Lacina, second by Bolkcom, to enter Executive Session at 9:30 a.m. to discuss collective bargaining strategy for the Sheriff's Department under section 20.17(3), Code of Iowa: "negotiating sessions, strategy meetings of public employees... shall be exempt from the provisions of chapter 21 (Official Meetings Open to the Public)." Roll call: aye: Bolkcom, Jordahl, Stutsman, Lacina, Duffy.
Motion to leave Executive Session at 10:33 a.m. Roll call: aye: Bolkcom, Jordahl, Stutsman, Lacina, Duffy. Reconvene informal at 10:38 a.m.
PLANNING AND ZONING ADMINISTRATOR RICK DVORAK: PRESENTATION OF A LAND USE PLANNING TOOL
Dvorak: What your looking at is a software package, ArcView for GIS, and what Jim has done... I'm sorry does everybody know Jim from the DNR? What Jim has done is integrated this GIS system that's been created by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and our system. Our system meaning the maps that the Auditor has created and maps that the... yes if you folks can't see, Charlie has got a good seat back there. What it's done is it's taken as I've said, maps that the Auditor has created, our zoning maps, and the GIS system that Department Of Natural Resources has created. The reason for the presentation today is to show you what I think you can do for Johnson County in the area of land use primarily. What your looking at now is the base map that the auditor did create. Jim then drew in hatch marks on the right of where the application for next Thursday night is. This is the location of the sand and gravel pits. You can see the highway 923, and then the interstate and then the Isaac Walton Road is on the North Side. The reason for this presentation is to give you an idea of what I think this system can do again for you and for us and for the Zoning Commission and for the Public. The reason we started looking at this system is because, as you know I'm chair of the GIS study committee, and we've had a lot of information given to us and this is kind of in the direction of GIS. This is not a GIS system. We use the GIS format. This system is available, the DNR will give this system to us free of charge.
Department of Natural Resources GIS Specialist Jim Giglierano: We'll give you the data.
Dvorak: They'll give us the data.
Giglierano: Not the system.
Stutsman: Quick to clarify.
Dvorak: Also he has indicated to me, if we are allowed to get this system, if the Board thinks it's going to be a good tool for planning purposes, he would assist my staff and myself in the operation of this. Also in checking with vendors we've got some prices on some for GIS ArcView software program and training that would be associated with it. Because as you'll see what we do is very complicated. OK, well that's enough of the preface, because I think the system itself will kind of speak for itself. Again this is the base map. This is 2 square sections. The indication on here right now as you can see, the red hash marks is the proposed zoning. You see the river on one side, or a conditional use. It also shows you, can you pull out that red spot there?
Giglierano: Right here in the middle?
Dvorak: Yes. That one. The reason I wanted to pull that up and show you that is that's our zoning maps. Are you including the information...
Giglierano: I'm looking for it and it's very small down here in the corner there.
Dvorak: The reason they show you this is for in Land Use we try to use compatible uses and that's talked frequently in the existing comp plan and the proposed comp plan that you don't like to put certain uses by other certainly uses. In this particular case there are some requirements for a conditional use that if you're within 1000 feet of a residentially zoned area you need a 4/5 majority vote on the Board of Supervisors> This is an indication that the zoning classes are the only ones in the area that are zoned residential and they're outside of that 1000 foot area. That's land use. It gives us (inaudible) it' gives us the zoning, it gives us the amount of area that was zoned, the zoning number and the date. That we've done. That's what our office has been working on the last year and a half in this computer net, so we've created new zoning maps for Johnson County that are on computer. Now I think what I'll have Jim do is can you pull the lithographic information with the aerial photos up so you can really show the Board what this place looks like.
Giglierano: OK, you want it just here or do you want to..
Dvorak: No, do the whole.
Giglierano: Do the whole thing, OK.
Bolkcom: Can I ask you a question Rick?
Dvorak: You bet.
Bolkcom: the Yellow data, or noted in yellow... The Zoning information is something that you've put in, is something that exists also in the Auditors maps?
Dvorak: No, he can access it. I'll go back a little bit. Everything is done by layers and that's just the layer that you can put in and take out.
Bolkcom: We've got that done for the entire County?
Dvorak: That's correct.
Bolkcom: Great.
Lacina: So it's graphic driven, not data driven. You don't go into a database and do queries. You just put them in in layers.
Giglierano: In the full functional GIS system that the County would want to have, yes you would be able to query a parcel and get the owner information and that kind of thing. What we're talking about here is kind of a step in that direction where you've got the graphic data, you're able to put it usefully with other information, but it doesn't make that leap to the next step.
Lacina: This just gets us up and running and functioning with a basic system.
Giglierano: Yes and it doesn't cut you off in any way towards what you're eventually going to end up with.
Lacina: It's a good transition.
Giglierano: Yes, the... I should mention here the CAD files, the County base map in no way are changed. These are the raw files. The only thing we've done is to tell the program where to place it on the orthophoto which is in a different system and so the actual data from the County database stays the same. It doesn't change it any way. So that's a real plus. You're not doing a lot of effort to get it to work essentially.
Lacina: Then could we use the school districts Tiger files on these photos? Is that going to be compatible or is that just up in the air?
Giglierano: That's one of the layers that we have in our database that will work with the system.
Dvorak: We also have on this the census information. We can use that as a tool to show growth areas and so on. The areas that are growing are identified and we'll show you probably a last prior to the closing of the presentation.
Giglierano: Do you want to zoom in here on your area up here?
Dvorak: Yes, let's zoom in.
Giglierano: I should mention that the orthophotos, the aerial photographs here are not as accurate as the ones that the County database was developed from. They are a US Geological survey product which tries to do a lot over the whole country, so what we've done is to take the high accuracy data from the County and overlay it on the lower quality data. So again, because we haven't changed the CAD files, you don't lose any of that, the accuracy from your original data.
Dvorak: As far as labor intensive. It's not. We drew this zoning application on Tuesday in about a minute, I would say. So it's not going to create a lot more additional work for the staff and I think that was brought up a couple times, you are going to create something that's a lot of work and you don't have a lot of time to do it. Again here is the site for the proposal. You can see here, we've got a pointer, but we haven't quite figured out how to use it. But this is an existing sand pit, another sand pit, another sand pit out there. The only reason we want to bring that out is there will be a lot of discussion about existing sand pits in the area. So also you'll see this, this area here will be discussed frequently in the proposal also. The reason for that is in '93 this came down through here and tried to start, which it didn't accomplish a new channel in the river which did happen by Tri County bridge. This again, just to show you, we're not having a hearing on this application, I want to emphasize that, but I want to show you an example of what I think this can do for the County. Now these little yellow things, these are part of the parcel number here. Not a representation of anything that we would be looking at but eventually we will end up with a parcel number on each one of these as another layer. But that's down the road. Could you bring in now the flood plain?
Giglierano: Uh-huh.
Dvorak: Because again that's very relevant on this application.
Stutsman: Eventually will wells and septic systems, will we have...
Dvorak: What we're doing now, a winter project for Jeff in my office is to tie the numbers down. We're not going to physically draw them in yet. Since January now we've gone in all of the houses that we've done, we've drawn in all of the building permits that we've done and that's another layer. If there was a house up here it would show here, it would give the distances to all of the property lines, it would show the house drawn in, and it would show a deck on the back and it would give you the building permit numbers for all of that stuff. Eventually, our winter project this year, is to throw the well permit, if there is one, and the wastewater permits for numbers. We're not going to locate them at this time because I don't think the Health Departments information is accurate today. That would be an eventual goal.
Stutsman: All right.
Dvorak: But it will give us a key number that we can reference back to, just like we do the building permits, rezonings, platting numbers. I'm putting all of that stuff in for quick referencing. You can put a layer on this map. Which you can see here this is a representation for the flood plain.
Giglierano: Green is one hundred year and the red is the 500 year.
Dvorak: So this is of less interest to us than this area. One thing on this site too is it doesn't identify floodways, and we have the capability to show floodways, because the other regulations are much more stringent than the floodway area than they would be in the flood prone area or flood plane area. This again as a tool would tell me if a person came in, you've got a problem. Before you even try to zone that, lets look at this and see what we can do. So it's a good quick check for us.
Bolkcom: How accurate is it?
Dvorak: Not real accurate.
Bolkcom: When was this updated, is this '93 data from USGS or is it...
Giglierano: The flood plain data came about, it's FEMA flood plain data. After the flood, there was a flock of money that came in to the state and a lot of this stuff got digitized very rapidly and not at a real high quality either.
Dvorak: But the original flood plain maps are not of a real high quality either. So what I would do if a person comes in...
Giglierano: For a tool like this it's fine. You wouldn't want to locate your little 50 by 100 parcel and make that determination, but we're at a scale, one to 30,000 here that's quite useable.
Dvorak: For example, if a person came in for a building permit here, this is close enough for me to require him to have a surveyor go out and establish if that is in the flood plain or not and if it is, what's the elevation of the property. It's a tool that we use. See, that's what I do with maps. Because right now they're at 5200 scale. One inch equals 5200 feet. Well that's not real accurate.
Dvorak: Go back to the lithograph.
Giglierano: Let's see I don't... I'll have to put that underneath here.
Dvorak: Can you overlay the... Does this one have wetlands on it or is that the other one? Can you overlay the wetlands over the top of the lithograph?
Giglierano: Sure. Do you want me to take the flood plain out here?
Dvorak: Yes.
Giglierano: OK. Let's take the flood plain out.
Lacina: Instead of litho, can we install our orthos in this program?
Giglierano: The big expense of that is getting the paper maps into a digital form.
Lacina: Digitizing the maps. OK.
Giglierano: Yes.
Lacina: That answered my question.
Giglierano: Yes. You know, there are several ways to do that. You could send them off and just have the paper map scanned, which probably wouldn't be a real bad way to go.
Lacina: But the next time they fly...
Giglierano: The next time they fly...
Lacina: They'll do it digitized.
Giglierano: Like Coralville is doing that with their update and they're having the digital products as a part of the flights.
Lacina: So we get the map plus the discs.
Giglierano: Right. Yes.
Dvorak: Through our GIS Study Committee we sent out an RFP last week for a Needs Assessment Study. That will tell us that information. In other words, what do we need to do first? Do we need to close the polygons? No, we need to buy the software, then we need to close the polygons. Then we need to do this, then we need to do that. That's what we hope the Needs Assessment will do. Then, also they'll evaluate what we have for maps and what the Auditor's Office has. So we will be coming back to you with that proposal within the next month. Well it may be a couple more dollars, but...
Lacina: But at least we have an idea of where the next step is, so we don't go off in the wrong direction.
Dvorak: That's right and step and step and step. It may end up being a 10 year program. The reason I pulled this up, as you're aware, you were not permitted to disturb wetlands. That's a federal law. So what you can do is mitigate wetlands. You can disturb a wetlands and create a wetlands. Well, there are wetlands in this area. So Mr. (inaudible) has in their proposal (inaudible) has discussed this process for that, but I wanted to be able to show you that there are wetlands in different varying types.
Giglierano: This layer here came from the Fish and Wildlife Service. This is not a jurisdictional wetland layer. This is a land cover type of thing. Somebody interpreted it from an aerial photograph and no one has been there on the ground, because this was a national program. So the manpower just wasn't there to go and verify every polygon here.
Dvorak: What we do is this map tells me, so I tell the applicant then he needs to go to the Soil Conservation Service. They do a site investigation. If they think this is wetlands, they then get the Corps. Of Engineers in and do a total evaluation for wetlands. Then they have to file a 404 file and check the 404 with the federal government to see if they can disturb this and what process they have to use. But again, it's a tool and that's all it's designed for is a tool to help us locate these sensitive areas. Also you can see in here, I've got woodlands. So that's very important. If this were a residential development then we would probably work with them to try to have a conservation-type subdivision. So they didn't disturb the woodlands. If this is a wildlife area that the wildlife traverse through, we don't want to disturb that area. It's that information we need to work with that developer from the beginning before we start studying the money to start planning the area. Don't disturb this spot. Develop this area over here. Things like that.
Stutsman: You were talking about training that goes along with this, who were you thinking of?
Dvorak: I've only talked to one vendor and right now they would offer a 2 day training course and I can get 4 or 5 people. Normally, it's $400 a day per person. They said if we bought their software, they would train 4 to 5 people for 2 days for $400 per day. So the whole system completed would be around $1800 or $1900. That would be training and the software and one disc to give to Jim to transfer all of his stuff on. That's my understanding. But I've only talked to one vendor. That doesn't mean that there aren't other vendors out there. Jim gave me a guy today that he buys his software from. So it's around $2,000.
Lacina: Jim, that sounds very inexpensive.
Giglierano: You've got to realize this isn't the County GIS System. This is a tool that's going to get these guys started. That in itself I think is an important point. When people are starting off in this GIS mess, they experience, getting some experience is a big factor in the eventual success. When we started 10 years ago, we sent people off to training and just kind of built things up in a very incremental manner. There's a lot of attractiveness to that, because once you start building the experience, then you know where you want to go. I think there are enough people and there enough agencies out there that have some experience and some things that you guys can use that you're in a good position. For Rick's office it's a good deal.
Dvorak: Yes. Linn County has been using the same system that Jim created for them for over a year now.
Lacina: Through their Auditor's office?
Giglierano: Through the Planning Office.
Lacina: OK.
Dvorak: And it's come most to light when you're trying to site the landfill. They would use the same information to site and show the public that all of the public hearings that we have, it's that visual aid again. But also can you pull up the soil maps?
Bolkcom: Besides the staff training and more experience we'll get this is a great tool for the Board and the public to come and see this. We go visit everything, but to see the flood plain, to see the soils, to see the woodlands...
Dvorak: It will also show us... When we get to the soils we'll point that out.
Giglierano: What I wanted to mention, you mentioned the data base aspects of the parcel data. Well here is an example of you have a County soil survey which obviously has soil mapping units, but there is also a data base associated with that. What we're going to bring up here is the CSR numbers for each of those mapping units. There is a very long list of attributes that go with each soil polygon, the slope, whether it's a hydric soil, whether it's a highly erodible soil. Any of these things you can map.
Lacina: So your contours, if you're talking about a B-slope and those types of things that would give you some indication of...
Giglierano: Yes, those numbers are in there. Yes.
Dvorak: We normally set the perimeters because like in our comp plan we use 65 and above as kind of a break point, because Jim normally would put in 64 and below green meaning that's OK and 65 and above means a critical area that the Board should look at and be concerned about why are we trying to develop that. Also can do it with slopes. On my program I use, for now currently, I set the perimeters on slopes for 18%, 0 to 18%, because that is the Health Department break point. Anything over 18% is difficult...
Lacina: That's the strength of having a data base driven for. You can go in and do a query as opposed to going in and pulling up one static layer. That's a lot of power.
Dvorak: You asked about training? What I would propose is that 2 people in my office be trained and 2 people in Information Services and that's up to Jean, who those 2 people will be, they would be the support. If I can sneak one more person in under this price that was quoted, I would probably have Bill Greazel come.
Stutsman: From the Assessor's Office?
Dvorak: From the Assessor's Office.
Stutsman: Why Bill?
Dvorak: Primarily because he's very actively involved in the GIS potential and also they paid for it. They paid for the mapping, so it's not a bad idea to involve them. Hopefully if we do look at a GIS system they would help support it financially.
Giglierano: Well again, this is the soils, and we just picked 5 categories using your red, green, yellow system here. The numbers that are under 65 are green. The yellow and red are above 65. So right away you've got a quick tool for looking at the corn suitability rating for a particular site. In this particular site you've got a real mix of good and bad.
Dvorak: Now there is another one that we show the types of crops.
Giglierano: You might want to turn the lights off for that one, it's a little bit washed out.
Dvorak: Can you find it with the lights off.
Giglierano: Yes I can find it.
Dvorak: (Inaudible).
Stutsman: Is that right? Great.
Giglierano: This is from a project that the DNR is doing to map simple land cover types for the whole state. This is the Johnson County file and the gray areas are row crop, the yellow areas are pasture and hay land. The dark green areas are forested, blue is obviously water and the pink areas are what we call artificial, that would be your streets and houses and stuff like that. The reason this is so course looking is it's taken by a satellite. The only way that we could do a statewide assessment was to use sort of course-grained imagery for the whole state, but for this purposes you get the general idea. Over here, right now... I should mention the data is from '92. This is all row crop and forest.
Lacina: Was this also when they did the residue count by satellite on these fields.
Giglierano: We've tried that, we've used this particular satellite to do that, but nothing on a sort of regular or extensive basis. We've worked a lot with NRCS to try to do that. But its never gone.
Dvorak: Unless somebody else has anything they'd like to see in this area, lets go into the County map and show some of the statistical information about the census.
Giglierano: OK.
Dvorak: And the other things we're looking at, soils and so forth.
Giglierano: Yes, just to back out here. Like I said this is a part of the whole county and just to show you where this information came from that was developed from satellite data and I have a couple examples of that. This is a springtime image. The red areas are vegetation, the bluish areas are row crop, bare soil in the springtime.
Lacina: What are your grid coordinates up in the right hand corner as you move your cursor you're getting a (inaudible).
Giglierano: Right, yes. The coordinates up here are what's called UTM. It's a military coordinate system that we use for the whole state, because the whole state is covered by pretty much one zone. The files from the County's data base are in State Plane Coordinates, which are more localized and therefore more accurate. It's not a big leap to go from one or the other. The other information that we have here is a summertime image and if you zoom in here, I can pick out soybeans and corn and pasture land and things like that. That's what this County land cover map was developed from. Some of the other things that we have, the soils are actually mapped on a township by township basis, but we have the whole county. Let's see what's the census data? What was the other thing you guys were interested in? These are the census block groups. Actually census blocks and they're colored by population density. So the white areas are the most densely populated. Again, this is another example of a graphic with a database. Things like total population, tells what, this is just set up by population greater than 18 years of age, white, black, American Indian, Asian. These are all statistics that were developed from the census data. Of course they obviously collected a lot more information, things about income and so froth. Even though that's not available in this particular file, those types of things can be linked in with the graphic coverage fairly easily.
Dvorak: This is the term Tiger file.
Giglierano: Yes this was devolved from the Tiger file which is the graphic component of the census data.
Dvorak: So basically what you're saying is we can add additional information to this as we need it.
Giglierano: Right.
Bolkcom: So we've seen a bunch of different data sets here. What is the total, are we going to have all of these Rick and what's the cost? I mean it sounds like this is all just practically free or very low cost.
Giglierano: Well the data that we have, we're very willing to give you a copy. I have an agenda and that is we work for the Department Of Natural Resources, we develop this data so that people could make the decisions on natural resources. That's the mission of our little section that worked on developing this data. By working with people like Rick and working with folks in Linn County, we feel that by providing this information, we're meeting our mission.
Dvorak: Well does it serve any purpose to create it and not use it?
Lacina: But likewise as we become more sophisticated in using this you're going to be able to step in, along with utility companies, and all other sectors and utilize a much more accurate system to everybody's advantage.
Giglierano: Well that's my other agenda. By providing this data and developing an environment where we can cooperate, we're hoping to get good quality data when you guys are ready. We have locations of state parks and things like that and by far the stuff that's in the Auditors maps is much better than anything that we have. We're interested in that.
Bolkcom: In this census one could you go over to a North Corridor shot? Looking at this, this would be a great tool to have as we continue to work on our comprehensive plan. This is a snapshot where people are living right now.
Dvorak: It is identified in the proposed comp plan to have a form of GIS system as part of the comp plan, so this would accomplish that goal.
Bolkcom: The key is...
Giglierano: The lightest tones are the most densely populated.
Bolkcom: So it says 15,005 to 33,300 or something like that. What's that mean?
Giglierano: You know we can query and individual block here and actually get the actually population is 137. The... We're not talking great big numbers, but this is the finest resolution of the census data, it's the block, the actual blocks. When you get into town, the blocks more or less represent a city block.
Bolkcom: Sure.
Giglierano: Out here obviously they're much larger.
Bolkcom: Last night we were talking about the comprehensive plan and mapping and the graphical part, trying to figure out where we're going and one of the concepts was this idea of a buildout map. I don't know if you guys have any experience, where if we do this option, here's what this map will look like in 20 years for example.
Giglierano: Sure
Bolkcom: There are 5 options and you'll do a graphical thing, maybe like this. Do you guys have any experience with anything like that?
Giglierano: We don't. The only population statistics besides this are sort of county-based you know, every ten years. We haven't played with population that much, other than sort of risk assessment types of things.
Jordahl: Do you have a 1980 census overlay that you can do?
Giglierano: I don't have the block data, I have county data. But you know the 2000 census is really pretty close, a lot closer than you think. So it will at least have 2 10 year periods of good data.
Stutsman: So where do we go from here Rick?
Dvorak: Is there anything else you'd like to show Jim that he's capable of doing or is that...
Giglierano: There are things other than... A true GIS has other capabilities than just producing nice looking maps. I think in the future the analytical capabilities are going to be, you know where a lot of the real excitement is going to be. How much population is affected by this type of land use change. Actually computing some numbers and doing various scenarios of how can we do things differently, what's the effect? That's all of the good things that GIS will get you in the future. This kind of day to day, what's on the land is a real big step. I think there will be benefits beyond that.
Lacina: The future is really wild and we had some presentations in our MBA classes from Rockwell talking about the application of the Saudi War to the private sector. One footnote was the ag community now with their combines can have satellite downlink, my brother's got 2 computers in his Case that will generate the moisture content and yield and map the field as they go across as far as productivity. Well now there is discussion about who owns that data and some unauthorized radio station can intercept that, find out what the neighbors yields are and... There are some of the things that are really going to be interesting in the future, but the things that we're going to see happen the next 5 to 10 years based off of this is just going to be amazing. In my opinion the sooner we start the better off we are.
Dvorak: IN closing I was very careful to not put on the agenda information regarding GIS system. Because I really don't want the public, people to perceive that this is a GIS system. It's kind of a format of GIS, and you can explain it better than I can Jim, but it's really not intended to be. It is compatible with GIS, if the County were to invest in money tomorrow to buy a full-blown GIS system, this system is compatible with that. It's a totally stand-alone system. For our purposes right now it is a stand-alone system, because it's more for a learning tool, a visual aid. It's not intended to be a GIS.
Giglierano: To emphasize, that learning is real important. The sooner the better, and it won't cut you off in the future.
Jordahl: When you talk about what the definition of the North Corridor is and you can certainly see where the white skews off over there. I mean obviously that's Swisher on the left but you mentioned the North Corridor going to off to the right a little bit more over there by Solon is much less densely populated and slight more of a left skew going over there towards Green Castle and Amana Road and so forth.
Dvorak: Well so we can also enter in transportation. That's one of the primary keys to land use. Not totally, but one of the primary keys and that can be shown as an overlay here. We can show you traffic counts as one of the overlays. We can show you... In other words if there is 32 houses built a road that's 200, what does that mean the traffic will be in 5 years with a full buildout. It will give you that information for even in your 5 year plan for Road Use taxes. As we've been saying, even the capability even on this scale is very wide open. This is something that we, I would like to get started in as soon as possible. I won't say that every zoning application, we have 20 applications next week, we're going to do this. I don't see the necessity to do this on every one. Besides that it's taken us 45 minutes to do this presentation. Well, I don't know if the Board would want to be burdened to do 20 application and 20 of these. You may, that's up to you, but I'm saying I'm not proposing to do that. I don't think it's necessary. But those that are fairly controversial, and there is a lot of questions and inquiries about, then I think this would be a good tool at our public hearings. That's my opinion.
Lacina: For the initial screening when the applicant comes in and you go through these sheets just to see if he's in the flood plain or those things.
Dvorak: Well I'll do that. You bet, I'll do that initially when the first contact is made with our office, because it's up to the Board to decide to what extent you want to use this for your public hearing process.
Jordahl: Well I think the more you become familiar with it Rick, the easier its going to be to present an application and doing your summary what's going on there with the graphic support. It may not initially seem time-consuming and cumbersome, but I think it's going to become a real frequent tool just like your computer or general uses become used all of the time.
Dvorak: I've got 3 other applications, I know you folks want to get going, but you've got 3 files on this, so you're the boss. We can call it quits or you can look at another one. But the information is always going to be the same.
Lacina: Is it in your budget?
Dvorak: We don't have a computer budget anymore. There's no line item, there is only one.
Stutsman: It has to go through the...
Lacina: Technology Committee. But then after that your going to need to come to us for a request for an amendment to do this? Or you can just absorb it.
Dvorak: The only cost to me, it doesn't come out of my budget. Hardware doesn't, software doesn't come out of my budget does it?
Lacina: The $2,000 training?
Bolkcom: How about training?
Dvorak: Training would have to come out of my budget, but I might be able to work that out with the other departments that want to get involved. Again we're only talking $1,000 in training.
Bolkcom: It's not very much.
Jordahl: I think we need to revisit that question, where the money is for the... Is it in departmental budgets? Is it in a central technology fund. I was talking to Lynnette a week or so ago and apparently there still are a a number of computer technology budget lines in individual departments.
Dvorak: I thought mine was removed.
Jordahl: Yours may have been. I'm not sure it's consistent, but we need to revisit that.
Stutsman: Yes.
Dvorak: Well I guess should I continue to investigate this, do I have the graces of the Board to get some cost estimates, get a couple vendors.
Stutsman: Oh, I think...
Lacina: Because that's a separate question. The DHS is an example. They will be probably required to have a computer line item in regards to the State, or Health as far WIC and some of those types of things. But again I think this is fantastic and what do we do to proceed?
Stutsman: Yes. I guess just basically give you the go ahead if we have consensus from the Board to pursue it.
Lacina: And the other thing is probably Jean look it at very carefully so that as we establish this, it its set up to be compatible with our other systems that it is... If it's just a transition, you can recommend to us how to set it up. Just so we don't try to... If this is a good training tool, we don't want to build it as the GIS system, as you've said, just so we know what it's limitations are.
Stutsman: Any other questions from...
Bolkcom: I'd like to thank Jim.
Lacina: Oh, yes.
Bolkcom: He's helped us a lot here.
Giglierano: My pleasure.
Stutsman: Great. Thank you.
Lacina: And hopefully you'll work with us so that in return you'll be able to get the data that you need and that's great.
Giglierano: Sure.
Bolkcom: And Rick for bringing this down.
Jordahl: I'll bet you'll let us know when it comes in.
Dvorak: Oh, yes.
Lacina: Now just a question, it used to be ASCS, it's now what? Family Farm...
Giglierano: FSA.
Lacina: So they do have the same thing. Should we drop them a letter as well saying that we're going to be using this and just share that with them?
Dvorak: (Inaudible).
Lacina: What other agencies should we consider just to notify them that we're going to be working with this or...
Giglierano: Well, there are other groups that are using it, NRCS is probably the main one. DNR has been using it for years. The only other thing might be what's going on in the City.
Dvorak: I think if it works out and you allow us to get it and we get some training and do a presentation, it might be good for the Board to invite some other...
Stutsman: That's a good idea.
Lacina: Geological Survey.
Dvorak: I would obviously want to use it for our fringe area agreements (inaudible). There will be other hardware we'll have to purchase down the road; we have to acknowledge that.
Lacina: But from our 911 system I can also see an overview from our towers that we're going to be required to do in time as we have to locate the cell phones.
Dvorak: They're already on there. We put those on last year.
Lacina: Cool.
Dvorak: (Inaudible) identified and put on our base maps.
Lacina: Good.
Stutsman: OK, anything else? There again thank you Rick and thank you Jim for coming in. The whole Board appreciates your efforts. If that's all I think we're adjourned for our informal meeting.
Adjourned at 11:20 a.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary