Iowa City Council rejects rezoning request that would stop high-rise

Intense criticism will not keep the city of Iowa City from moving forward with a developer planning to construct a high-rise building on city-owned land.

The City Council rejected Tuesday night a rezoning proposal aimed at preventing Marc Moen from building a $53.8 million, 20-story building he's calling The Chauncey at the intersection of College and Gilbert streets on the eastern edge of downtown.

The building is expected to have two movie theaters, a bowling alley, office space, a hotel and residential units.

The council voted 5-2 against the rezoning request, with Michelle Payne and Jim Throgmorton in the minority.

“It's a great piece of property that we can infill with,” council member Terry Dickens said.

The council's decision was focused on the land-use of the property, not the merits of the project.

The property would need to be rezoned to accommodate the height of Moen's building, which would be 233 feet high or, under a 16-story alternative being considered, 191 feet.

Opponents organized as the anti-Chauncey group Iowa Coalition Against the Shadow applied to have the site zoned in a way that allows buildings only up to 75 feet.

The city's Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-2 last month to recommend against the 75-foot rezoning.

To approve the rezoning would have effectively killed a project the council voted 5-1 in support of in January.

It also would have prevented the other two finalists from being built because they also would have run afoul of the height limitations.

Most of the speakers at the Planning and Zoning and the City Council meetings opposed Moen's project. Critics have been speaking out since last fall against the building's size, the $13.45 million in city financial assistance Moen says it will need and that it does not include New Pioneer Co-op, like the other finalists.

Rockne Cole, one of the applicants for the rezoning, called the council's selection of Moen's project a “breach of the public trust.”

“I know we're not here to talk about the development, but quite frankly, public trust in this council is at an all-time low,” he said.

But the project also has its backers.

Nancy Quellhorst, president and CEO of the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, said a rezoning supporting a high-rise building would promote smart growth, walkability, add more foot traffic downtown and a building with housing for young professionals, office space and ground floor uses that will attract people.