The Iowa Department of Transportation presented proposed administrative rules to govern local use of automated mobile traffic-enforcement systems, tying the rulemaking to 2024 Iowa Act House File 2681 (now cited as Iowa Code chapter 321P).

Department Traffic and Safety Bureau representative Chris Poole told the committee: "Proposed Chapter 145 establishes conditions, procedures, and responsibilities for the use of automated traffic enforcement mobile systems by local authorities to issue citations for violations of the speed limit." He said the proposal implements the 2024 law and that the public-comment period for the notice of intended action ended Jan. 28, 2025.

Poole said the department received regulatory-analysis comments from the City of Cedar Rapids during the analysis period. "Cedar Rapids submitted 9 written comments," he said, and summarized their requests: add a permit-application review timeframe; clarify that a local authority may continue to use a mobile system until the department issues an official decision deeming the location no longer necessary; limit the department's reevaluation authority; and delete or revise several paragraphs the city called redundant.

Committee members probed stakeholder outreach. When asked whether the department had engaged entities that currently use mobile traffic cameras, Poole replied that he had not had those conversations. A committee member asked whether there was a fiscal estimate for localities; an earlier presentation to the committee noted that "the full fiscal impact of all localities cannot be estimated," and gave example data from two small cities, Buffalo and Le Claire, that were not able to issue citations with mobile systems and saw reductions in local revenues.

Why it matters: the rules would set the administrative process and department oversight for how cities and counties may deploy mobile automated-enforcement units to issue speeding citations after the Legislature authorized them. Cedar Rapids' written requests focus on procedural timing and limitations on department rescission or modification authority, matters that can affect how long local programs run while reviews proceed.

The department said it would respond to the Cedar Rapids comments during the rulemaking process. The committee did not take a final vote on the proposal during the session covered by the transcript; discussion closed after Q&A and staff responses.