State transportation officials would develop statewide urban design standards

The department would coordinate with Iowa State University’s transportation institute to oversee a statewide urban design and specifications board. The board would develop standards and specifications for statewide urban design and publish design and specifications manuals online. The board would include department employees and members appointed by engineering, local government, construction, building, development, paving, and labor organizations. Some appointees would have to be licensed professional engineers. Members generally would serve without state pay or expense reimbursement, except state employees would keep their regular pay for board duties during regular work hours. The board would publish analyses of manual changes and estimates of likely cost changes.

A project manager would have to report project costs to the city council before approval of a street project that does not match state transportation standards. The requirement would apply to city street projects that do not match the department of transportation’s design standards and specifications. The report would describe costs caused by the project’s failure to match those standards. A city could not modify the approved project design standards and specifications after the project began. The cost report would be due before the city council approved the project, and the ban on changing approved standards would begin when the project started.