Cedar Rapids City Council identifies flood control, greenway as a top priority

CEDAR RAPIDS — As an influx of state, federal and local funding helps accelerate construction of Cedar Rapids’ $750 million permanent flood control system, the City Council on Tuesday identified development of the greenway along the Cedar River as among its top priorities.

Almost 14 years after the 2008 flood devastated the city, Cedar Rapids is updating its greenway master plan to include new recreational amenities.

The goal is to attract workers and spur economic development, to shape the look of the riverfront and to promote healthy communities — all with the Cedar River at the heart of that vision.

“Advancing the greenway planning is really important because that will be the part where the community will have the most interaction with the flood control system,” said council member Tyler Olson, chairman of the council’s Flood Control System committee.

“How do we turn it into something the community can enjoy and bring people to town?”

With an uptick of development in the Northwest and Time Check neighborhoods, and federal American Rescue Plan funds advancing the timeline of key flood control segments in the northwest quadrant, “it really is the perfect time to go out again and make sure that we have that public input” to best put this asset — the river — to use, Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt said.

Deputy City Manager Sandi Fowler said the east side of the river is on a “clear path” to complete flood control. The city is in year four of projects with the Army Corps of Engineers funding, with plans to wrap up that work by 2027, Fowler said.

Work on the west side, which is not covered with federal funding, is moving north as the city works to protect the areas closest to the river first.

In some locations, the city is limited in what it can do with the greenway because certain areas have to allow areas for floodwaters to go, Fowler said.

City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said the city will issue a request for proposals seeking consulting assistance to guide greenway planning and “develop this into an opportunity.”

“The citizens are going to see that work, and it’s not going to take forever,” he said, since some improvements will be simple. “It’s going to be a showplace.”

Olson envisions a public-private partnership, somewhat like the citizen-led ConnectCR effort at Cedar Lake that will stretch to include a pedestrian-bike bridge over the river.

“There are only so many things that the city, in my mind, can go to the private sector and say this is a top priority for the city and say, ‘We want you to financially participate.’ To me, that’s greenway,” Olson said.

A champion with a vision in the private sector is important, noted Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell, who campaigned on enhancing the riverfront and revitalizing downtown.

“If we say something is important to us, I just wonder if the private sector will follow,” O’Donnell said.

Pratt said the city was “cautiously optimistic” that federal funds would become available to support greenway work.

Water quality

Council member Ann Poe raised questions about water quality in the Cedar River as the city ramps up discussions for a 5-in-1 Dam bypass channel with white-water rafting and other water recreation.

“It’s hard for me to talk about river recreation if we have a polluted river,” Poe said.

Multimillion-dollar efforts are underway to reduce nitrate runoff and support agricultural management processes in the Middle Cedar Watershed, Utilities Director Roy Hesemann said.

The priorities

Council members did not officially set their top priorities Tuesday, wanting to further explore additional discussion points such as homelessness and ways the city may further support derecho recovery.

But the preliminary list of priorities included:

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