Riverfront Crossings Vote Coming to Iowa City Council Next Week

The expansion of downtown could become a reality as part of proposed new development along the Iowa River.

The will vote at its Tuesday, Oct. 18 meeting on whether to designate a 44-acre area between Riverside Drive and Gilbert Street, Highway 6 and Burlington Street, as an Urban Renewal Area.

“We’ve known for years there’s one direction downtown can grow and that’s south,” said Jeff Davidson, Iowa City's planning and community development director. “What accelerated it was the flood of 2008.”

Davidson said the city roughly has $60 million at its disposal to relocate and clean up the current wastewater treatment plant, located at 1000 S. Clinton St. The funding he said came from a combination of federal funding, state I-JOBS funding and from the local option sales tax.

The wastewater treatment plant isn’t included in the Riverfront Crossings Urban Renewal Plan, which will be voted upon next week. The plant lies within the much larger Urban Renewal Area, which the city approved as part of its comprehensive plan that has been in the works for years.

“The reason we started with the small area that’s the Riverside Drive corridor, is we have a couple projects that are heating up, so we wanted to get that established first,” Davidson said.

is bordered roughly by Riverside Drive to the west, Gilbert Street to the east, Highway 6 to the south, and Burlington Street to the north.

The tax incentives that come with the establishment of an Urban Renewal Area and the Riverfront Crossings Urban Renewal Plan help attract developers, according to Wendy Ford, the Economic Development Coordinator for the City of Iowa City.

“I think what developers want to know is that the city actually has a plan in place, and if they make an investment of a few millions dollars, other investments will follow to meet this vision,” she said. “The vision has had public input all along the way. We asked, ‘OK, community, what do you want to see in this area? Parks, trails, let the river has its space back? So this is the culmination of that whole process.’”

Ford said establishing the Riverfront Crossings Urban Renewal Plan creates a mechanism for the city to step in and be a partner in development projects, and for it to serve as the developer of public improvements, like trails, parks, streetscape enhancement.

“This enables the city to be able to use the tax increment in projects that have a public benefit,” she said.

Assistant City Manager Dale Helling said the Urban Renewal Plan will “open the door” to more incentives for development.

 “This allows a lot of things to happen like tax incentives, including tax financing increments, and potentially grant funding down the road,” he said.

Helling added the council has shown support for the Riverfront Crossings Project Plan in the past.

“Essentially this (vote) is needed in order to designate it as an urban renewal area,” he said. “The majority of council members have been on board so far so we’ll see if everyone supports it or not.”

The vote on the plan will include a public hearing that will allow members of the public to comment on the project. For more info on the plan, visit this link.