The Atlantic City Council is set to meet 5:30-p.m. today in the Chambers at City Hall. Among the action items on their agenda, is approval of an Order to enter into an agreement with SWIPCO (the Southwest Iowa Planning Council), for Regional Taxi Service. The City usually contributes $8,000 per year from the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) Progress fund for regional public transportation. City Administrator John Lund says the funds have been budgeted for in Fiscal Year 2019, and carried forward into the FY 2020 proposed budget, as well as the city’s 10-year budget plan.

The Council will also act on setting the date for a Public Hearing, on an update to the city’s Comprehensive Plan. The hearing is expected to be held Nov. 7th. The Comprehensive Plan is intended to be a guiding document for the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council, when it comes to major decisions on public policy, according to Lund, who says Atlantic’s last Comprehensive Plan was adopted in Dec., 2002. General practice is for the CP to be updated every 10-years, but Lund says “Administrative conflicts related to the interpretation of the [CP] and how it was to be applied to development in the community, resulted in an extensive delay before the updating process was initiated.”

Lund says SWIPCO has undertaken the task of updating the CP, and he feels the current draft is much better than the 2002 plan, with the language carefully reflecting the culture of the community and addressing the city’s future goals. The Planning and Zoning Commission, he says, reviewed the draft during their meeting on Sept. 20th, and made some suggestions for improvement. They recommend the Council adopt the plan as written, following the required Public Hearing on Nov. 7th.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council will hold the second reading of an Ordinance pertaining to speed regulations on Sunnyside Lane, from 10th to 22nd Streets, and the second reading of an Ordinance pertaining to trees in the City Right-of-Way, and the authority of the City Forester. They will also act on a Resolution adopting the Building Permit Fee schedule, as presented in Ordinance 964. The only change is the numbering of the Ordinance, which was somehow excluded when the new Zoning Ordinance was adopted in April, 2017. The final order of business for the Council, is action of a Resolution pertaining to the City’s Personnel Policy, which is simply a correction to the wording.