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Cedar Co. 2.0: From housing to attractions
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · October 12, 2017


“We need to know what is special about this place,” Ahnna Nanoski said.
Referring to Cedar County, she and six other students from the University of Iowa Urban and Regional Planning school faced two dozen mostly West Branch-area residents to kick off a series of meetings to develop a plan for growth and development.

Ideas ranged from improving water quality in Hoover and Wapsinonoc creeks, getting Hardacre Theater up and running again, avoiding overlap of annual city festivals and other major regional-draw events, upgrading public transportation, building more community centers and residential housing, and drawing more specialty services businesses like pharmacies.

The students hung posters around the Community State Bank basement meeting room walls and on easels in an effort to spark ideas and prompt conversation toward a Cedar County Great Places Vision Plan.

One poster listed 11 attractions already in the county, like the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum, the John Brown home and related Underground Railroad sites, downtown West Branch, and the Hoover Nature Trail — all in West Branch. Participants placed stickers to weigh the sites by importance to the county, with the Hoover library and Hoover Nature Trail topping the list.

Another poster showed the county colored to rate land for growing row-crop corn, noting that the average Corn Sustainability Rating for the county is 77.5 percent, meaning the land is of medium quality to produce corn and can likely yield around 191 bushels per acre.

Yet another map broke down land by current use, like agriculture, residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, public parks and restricted development areas. The map marks five old landfills/dump sites, with the ones closest to West Branch south of Buchanan and in Rochester — both on the east side of the Cedar River, which runs diagonally south and east.

Responding to a question, UI student Adam Kofoed said Cedar County’s Board of Supervisors last completed a 20-year comprehensive plan in 1980, 37 years ago. This Great Places Vision Plan would produce another 20-year comprehensive plan, he said, and should be updated every 10 years.

Among some of the comments that night:

• “There’s no unity within the county. Do we have any empathy for people up in Massillon (township)?” The comment was referring to how residents of different cities gravitate to different larger cities like Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Davenport to work and recreate.

• Only two regional transportation services were identified by the group: River Bend Transit, a door-to-door service largely used by the elderly and disabled, though available to the general public; and a passenger van shuttling UI staff to Iowa City.

• Stormwater and flood areas, when dry, “are a good place to recreate, or for trails.”

The West Branch meeting was the first of a six running through Nov. 2.

The City of West Branch was represented by Mayor Roger Laughlin, council member Colton Miller, City Administrator Redmond Jones and Deputy City Clerk Gordon Edgar. Representatives of Cedar County included Board Chair Dawn Smith and board members Jon Bell, County Assessor Cynthia Marx, Chief Deputy Kevin Knoche and Geographic Information System tech Nathan Teut.

Business representatives included real estate agents and farmers Ken and Helen Fawcett, antique and art dealer Louis Picek and developer and accountant Chris Kofoed.

Federal government staff on hand included Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum Director Thomas Schwarts, Hoover National Historic Site Superintendent Pete Swisher and park ranger Cary Wiesner.



Getting involved

The Great Places group wants thoughts and ideas on six key topics: Livable built environment; harmony with nature; economic vitality; equity; healthy communities, like with housing and transportation; regionalism.

The group also offers two questions:

• How can the quality of life be increased in Cedar County?

• Over the next 10 to 20 years, what are the biggest challenges facing the county?

Those with input may attend an upcoming meeting or send it to CedarCo-Plan@uiowa.edu. A Facebook page also exists: CedarCoPlan.

Upcoming public input meetings

• Oct. 11 at 6:30 p.m., Mechanicsville, American Legion, 102 North John Street

• Oct. 18 at 6:30 p.m., Clarence Library, 309 Sixth Avenue

• Oct. 24 at 4:30 p.m., Stanwood Park Shelter, 105 North Maple Street

• Oct. 25 at 6:30 p.m., Durant, Community Center - East Room, 606 Fifth Ave.

• Nov. 2 at 6:30 p.m., Tipton, Cedar County Courthouse - Basement, 400 Cedar Street



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Editor's note: This article was updated Oct. 23, 2017, to correct the name Wapsinonoc Creek