Coralville planning $7.9 million parks, transit building

The city wants to build a new $7.9 million facility to house its parks and transit departments, which were displaced by last year's record flood.

The city is considering buying land near its water plant on 10th Street east of 12th Avenue, City Engineer Dan Holderness said. That's well away from the flood plain and the site where the departments had been on the south end of Third Avenue near Clear Creek.

Those buildings took on several feet of water during the flood, and the departments have been operating out of leased space since then.

The City Council still must approve the plans. The council is expected to set a public hearing for Aug. 25.

The proposal calls for a 40,000-square-foot building at an estimated cost of $7.9 million. The city will get a state grant of up to $880,000 for the project.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay to provide a facility comparable to what was flooded, plus the cost of complying with codes, land acquisition and the extension of roads and utilities to a new site, Holderness said. An exact amount is being worked out.

Those details must be settled before construction can start. The facility will take one year to build, Holderness said.

“We're going to do our best to work with FEMA and get the most we can out of them, obviously, to try to minimize the cost to citizens,” Holderness said.

The transit and parks departments had one building each and a 20,000-square-foot storage unit on Third Avenue, but those buildings were undersized and inefficient, city staff said.

“We would be very happy (with a new facility), to say the least,” said Vicky Robrock, director of parking and transportation.

Constructing a joint facility will save money on space, and the city wants to make it energy-efficient, Holderness said.

The city is purchasing properties near the old parks and transit homes and wants to redevelop the area. An open house on the city's plans will start at 5 p.m. Monday at City Hall.