Hayes Park: A new group of neighbors being asked to pick between park space and housing to replace some lost in the June 2008 flood

The new, non-profit Neighborhood Development Corp. calls itself a “grass-roots” force that isn't about to do anything that neighbors insist doesn't make sense.

Neighbors in the Hayes Park area near Czech Village will put the five-month-old corporation to the test on Tuesday evening when they get a chance to tell Carol Bower, the corporation's executive director, what they think of an idea to convert about half of the 4.5-acre park into 12, three-bedroom homes for what Bower calls “survivors” of the June 2008 flood.

Bower's entity is joining forces with the Four Oaks family-services agency and its Affordable Housing Network in the housing proposal. Four Oaks occupies a building that once housed Hayes Elementary School next to Hayes Park, and Tuesday's neighborhood meeting at 6 p.m. will be in that building at 1924 D St. SW.

Those who attend will get a chance to see views of the park that show the existing playground, a new splash pad and walking trail with and without houses on the site, Julie Sina, the city's parks and recreation director, said Monday. The existing ball diamond at the site is slated for closing in either event.

Sina said she will be at Tuesday's meeting to try to answer the question: “What do the neighbors want?” The city needs affordable housing, she said, but at the same time, residents have been skittish about giving up park land, she added.

Bower said she will try to make the case Tuesday that building the new homes will replace housing lost in the flood and will bring 12 families back to the neighborhood and back to the neighborhood businesses and schools.

The Hayes Park site, she noted, is in the city's 500-year flood plain where new homes can be built, yet the site is only a couple blocks from dozens of flood-wrecked homes closer to the river that are slated for buyouts and demolition. The buyout area will become new city park land in the next few years that will more than make up for a piece of Hayes Park that would be used now for new homes, Bower said.

“Bringing new families into the neighborhood is imperative, and there's just no land available to do that,” Bower said of her idea to use a piece of the park.

Much behind-the-scenes spade work already has gone into the Hayes Park housing proposal, though Bower said the new Neighborhood Development Corp.'s idea won't go anywhere if it must be forced on the existing neighborhood.

“We are a very grass-roots organization,” she said. “And we really want that neighborhood support before we go in and suppose anything.”

Bower said the city purchased Hayes Park from the school district for $1 when the district closed the elementary school back in 1981. The district required the city to use the land as a park.

Bower said she will appear at the Sept. 14 school board meeting to ask the board to amend the purchase agreement to permit the new housing.

All 12 homes, if built, will go to flood survivors, Bower said. Each new owner, she said, will benefit from a state of Iowa disaster program that is providing down payment assistance of up to 30 percent of the cost of the home for 177 new homes in Cedar Rapids. The Neighborhood Development Corp. and the Affordable Housing Network applied and secured 12 of the 177 slots for their Hayes Park proposal.

Bower said the each of the 12 homes will cost between $125,000 and $129,000 to build, which will put the purchase price at between about $85,000 and $90,000 with the state down payment assistance. Each home will have three bedrooms and one-and-a-half baths and sit on lots that are 50 feet by 120 feet. Five houses will front 19th Avenue SW and seven will front Hayes Street SW.

The Neighborhood Development Corp. is modeled after a similar entity in Des Moines, which Bower once headed up. The City Council steered $1.5 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds to the corporation, which the state of Iowa made available for community disaster recovery.

In its first move, the corporation announced in July it would purchase the flood-damaged Village Bank & Trust Co. building at 1201 Third St. SE for $350,000. It could cost $1 million to renovate, Bower has said.