Rethink Pentacrest Garden zoning in I.C.

The Iowa City Council recently rezoned the Pentacrest Garden site on Burlington Street in Iowa City to allow eight or more levels. One has to wonder what was behind this.

Burlington is overcrowded now. It already is challenging for anyone negotiating this block so the thought of hundreds more students at each light is quite sobering.

The decision also seems odd when UI is considering requirements for both first- and second-year students to be housed in the dormitories, as student numbers fluctuate. Right now, there are empty new apartments at Madison Street and East Court Street - both adjacent to Burlington. Certainly, these apartments will be expensive. This is no place for families - with the exhaustion coming from current traffic, not to mention the lack of safe play space and icy sidewalks because of shadows.

How many more cars can Burlington Street cope with?

My sincere hope is the city holds off on this idea. Current apartments have yet to be filled.

When the Stanley museum will be started there already will be enough digging and building going on in this area.

Sonia Ettinger

Iowa City