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City opposes Cypress Villages’ plans to be city
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The Fairfield City Council has taken a stance of opposition to Cypress Villages’ petition for incorporation.
The council voted Tuesday evening to authorize city attorney John Morrissey to represent Fairfield at the state’s City Development Board meeting today in Des Moines.
“The petition went in incomplete,” Morrissey said. “It should be our position that it’s in inaccurate petition and it wasn’t served on the city in time to meet requirements of the board and allow us to participate in the review process.”
Morrissey also expressed concern about councilwoman Martha Norbeck’s role in the development. He said state code clearly calls for anyone with direct interests potentially adverse to the city to make an immediate disclosure and refrain from participating in the city’s action on the matter.
As the green building designer for Cypress Villages, Norbeck said she had no intention of participating, and at Morrissey’s request, she also agreed not to speak or answer questions before the City Development Board.
Morrissey went on to outline concerns beyond the procedural issues of petition delivery and potential conflict on the council.
Fairfield has the ability to exercise influence over a two-mile extra-territorial zone outside of city limits. If Cypress Villages is permitted to form a city at the corner of Highway 1 and Airport Road, the city’s influence would be cut back to half a mile at that spot, Morrissey explained.
He also said the developers’ plans to install wind towers at the north end of their property are an immediate concern to the airport and its compliance with Federal Aviation Administration guidelines. Wind turbines pose a threat to both height restrictions near the airport and the airport’s plans for expansion of its east/west runway, Morrissey explained.
He believes the developers do not see the airport as a legitimate concern.
“I think the city of Fairfield needs to go up to the development board and say this is a lot bigger concern to us than you think,” he said.
Morrissey also noted Cypress Villages’ lack of government, population and existing structures as potential problems with the petition.
By: Lacey Jacobs, Ledger staff writer
28 May 2008
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