$100,000 study to focus on Cedar Rapids development along Highway 30

CEDAR RAPIDS - A continued appetite from developers and prospective homebuyers in the Highway 30 area east of Interstate 380 could require a 'significant” city investment of $204 million in infrastructure over 50 years, the cost of which could take 137 years to pay off.

That is one of the conclusions of a $100,000 study conducted for the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The study was prompted by Cedar Rapids, a member of the MPO, as the city contemplates development proposals before it and works through concerns in existing developments about sanitary sewer and water service and safe access from county roads onto to Highway 30.

The study, by HR Green Inc. of Cedar Rapids, and S.B. Friedman and Co. of Chicago, was accepted by the MPO policy board Thursday and now will be used by planning officials as the Highway 30 study area continues to develop.

In a presentation to the MPO board, Jim Halverson, HR Green senior project manager, said the study examined two scenarios in the 9,500-acre, 14 1/2-square-mile study area, north and south of Highway 30.

Much of it in unincorporated Linn County, some in Cedar Rapids and some within two miles of Ely and Bertram. The study assumes that the entire area would become part of Cedar Rapids as it is developed.

In the first scenario, contemplated by Cedar Rapids' new comprehensive plan, 10,483 housing units would be added to the area in 16 years. In the more aggressive, market-driven scenario, the area would grow by 22,640 units in 50 years.

The infrastructure costs and costs for services such as police and fire for the market-driven model would be more than double the planned-growth model and would take over three times as long to pay off, Halverson said. He said the city would pay for major streets connecting developments but developers would pay for other streets.

Halverson said HR Green convened focus groups of neighbors and others as it prepared its study, and he said access onto Highway 30, where the speed limit is 65 mph, was a central concern.

He said the study does not recommend specific changes to streets or Highway 30. But he said it does offer ideas and concepts, such as the extension of turn lanes, the addition of acceleration and deceleration lanes and overpasses.

The study also envisions frontage roads parallel to Highway 30, including an east-west street that would connect Ivanhoe Road to Ely Road and to C Street SW.

The study says the existing intersection at Highway 30 and C Street SW needs improvement.

Cedar Rapids City Council member Ralph Russell, an MPO board member, said safety issues related to access to Highway 30 was a principal 'driver” of the city's interest in the study. But he said the study did not address specific, short-term solutions.

The study comes as Cedar Rapids already is taking steps to address issues from existing developments in the study area, which has a topography that challenges the city to provide services.

Just last month, for instance, the City Council's Infrastructure Committee endorsed a plan for the city to take over private lift stations in residential developments in the area in an agreement that will charge neighbors higher sewer fees for a decade.