This is the story of a small town, developers, and active citizens. We live in a town of about two thousand which is encircled by Iowa City. Founded early in the twentieth century, our town was surrounded by farm land and only later was engulfed by the larger city. It never occurred to the founders to set aside park land.
Time passed, and developers noticed how close we are to the university hospitals, Finkbine golf course, and Kinnick Stadium. The first attack came when a developer swooped in and made an over market bid for a church that wanted to move. His proposal would convert mostly green space and a community service into businesses and condos. We claimed that he could not make the business work. It appears we were right; a year after sales started only half the condos have sold and only two of the eight commercial spaces are full.
We did mitigate some of his harm. His original plan included clearcutting and filling a ravine that divided his site from a quiet residential neighborhood. I walked our town and got signatures from three-quarters of our citizens asking the council not to rezone the ravine. They rezoned it anyway, but did make the developer change his plans so that the ravine was preserved and traffic is diverted away from the residential neighborhood.
Eight years after this developer, another one wanted to buy one of the two last green spaces to build a Marriott. He said visitors to the hospitals would love it; we pointed out that hotel capacity in the area is forecast to grow by 35% next year and another hotel is not needed. Time will tell who is right, but along the way we did concessions from him. Part of his deal with the town includes his buying and donating to the city two small rental houses near his site; these will be sold to new owners and their sale price go to a virtuous cycle turning rentals into owner-occupied homes at affordable prices.
The last, and largest, green space left in our town went up for auction yesterday. See that colorful map at top? That is the tract, which is heavily wooded, deeply ravined, and has several water courses in it. It was last sold in the nineteenth century. A relative of the town’s founders kept it free from all development or use for more than half a century. There is no space in it to build or develop without getting a variance from our environmental ordinances. The color mark the areas that are affected by the ordinances. For reference, the diagonal red line is a train embankment.
Our city council was forethoughtful enough to put a bond issue proposal to the town to fund buying it. The bond issue (which authorized up to $1.5 million!) passed, three to one in favor.
I needed to see what would happen. Tall Son and I attended the auction, which was public. Our mayor, town attorney, and several others turned up. After about half an hour of incredibly fast talking — we got it! The town is buying it at $480,000, well below the authorized amount. This would be a bit generous for residential land (it is zoned R1), very low for commercial land, and high for wood lot, its only currently approved use.
Work behind the scenes made this happen. Our zoning commission put in many hours drafting ordinances that would protect steep slopes, woodlands, and waterways. Our previous ones were skimpy and did not include some of these. The council passed the ordinances last fall.
The zoning commission also got the town mapped for these categories and asked the city engineer to estimate what parts of the tract could be built on, either as single family or higher density. The map that resulted had notes on every site indicating what variances would be needed to make allow it. There is literally no site, not even for a single family dwelling, that is permitted under current ordinances.
Now, we can plan for the future and dream big dreams. I think there are sites at the east and west ends of the tract that could accommodate a picnic shelter. Thoughtful additions could add gentle trails. Eagle Scouts will have scope for projects for years. The nearby elementary school children can pull garlic mustard and help clear the invaders out.
The tract is close enough to the hospitals that residents and students with bikes can come for their lunch hours. Hospital visitors can find a green refuge. So many possibilities! It gives me hope that sometimes the good guys win.