Iowa City Council votes to demolish Wastewater Treatment Plant buildings

IOWA CITY - Officials are moving ahead with plans to demolish buildings of the flood-damaged North Wastewater Treatment Plant, including the Control House building that some area residents had recommended for preservation.

The Iowa City Council on Monday voted 6-1, with Councilor Terry Dickens opposed, to approve plans for the North plant salvage and demolition phase of the wastewater treatment plant relocation project.

The vote comes despite a handful of area residents - several with the sustainability-focused group Ecopolis - expressing a desire to amend the plan to provide a few years to raise the roughly half a million dollars needed to reuse the building as a public space, rather than demolish it.

Dickens said he was supportive of giving area residents a chance to raise the funds to preserve the building.

'I think we should give people a chance to step up and show us that this is very important,” he said. 'This is part of our past, but it can be a part of our future as well.”

Many who spoke in favor of saving the building, including area attorney Rockne Cole, described the building as having countless potential uses.

'It is a nearly perfect location for a center for doers, for bikers, for makers, for growers and it's perfectly located,” Cole said. 'If we don't do it, then we've lost the opportunity.”

Council member Susan Mims, who said she appreciated the enthusiasm of the public, argued the opposite, noting the building's location in the middle of a flood plain.

'My concern is that it's not perfectly positioned at all, it's sitting there in the flood plain and we know it's going to flood again,” she said. 'Let's find a better location out of the flood plain.”

Staff also noted the added cost of future demolition bids, if the public failed to reach the money and the building had to come down anyway.

City staff have pointed out a handful of community spaces that could meet the needs pointed out by the public including the East Side Recycling Center, Ned Ashton House, Riverside Festival Stage in City Park, and the park lodge at Terry Trueblood Recreational Area. Those sites are in addition to the more traditional locations like such as the city's Senior Center, public library and two recreation centers.

Built in 1935, the Control House was a joint project between Iowa City and the University of Iowa. During reviews in the demolition planning process, the city determined that the building does not appear eligible for a listing on the National Register of Historic Places; however, city staff recognizes the appealing architecture and role the facility played in the community, according to a Feb. 18 city memo.

The wastewater plant was inundated by 2008 floodwaters, which set in motion plans to relocate plant operations to new facilities south of town at 4366 Napoleon St. SE.

Hired by the city to explore options, Coralville firm Stanley Consultants determined that removing the Control House from the list of buildings set for demolition only knocked about $62,000 off the total $4.3 million demolition cost. Restoring the building to usable condition has been estimated at $554,000, which doesn't include the cost of transitioning the space to accommodate public use.