Rezoning for 84-unit apartment complex in Iowa City faces higher hurdle

IOWA CITY — A rezoning request that would allow for the development of a 84-unit apartment complex north of Happy Hollow Park between Governor and Dodge streets will face a higher hurdle for approval Tuesday when it goes before the Iowa City Council.

Some north side residents have expressed concerns about the size of the development compared with the rest of the neighborhood. A petition of protest to the rezoning, which can be conducted by property owners in the proposed zoning area, has been filed. As a result, six out of seven members of City Council — not just a simple majority — would need to approve the rezoning request.

The proposed complex includes two buildings, each with 42 units, and offers a mix of market-rate one- and two-bedroom units. The buildings would be about 236 feet long, which those opposed to the rezoning pointed out is the about same size as some entire city blocks. The development also would include a surface lot and underground parking.

City acting as co-applicant

The city is a co-applicant for the rezoning application for the 5.49 acre property with the developer, Tracy Barkalow’s TSB Holdings.

TSB Holdings is asking that the property be rezoned to high density single family zone and medium density multifamily zone.

The plan would be to demolish an existing vacant office building and two single-family homes along Governor Street. Along Dodge Street, there are two existing duplexes and two multifamily residences. While they would remain, the development plan would convert one of the duplexes to a single-family home to adhere to zoning standards.

Proposed development on the property has been the subject of litigation between the city and TSB Holdings that resulted in a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court ruling. The court ruled that apartment development on the property was allowed through a zoning code that the city no longer uses.

“In summary, the current rezoning proposal, joined by the city, is intended to simultaneously comply with legal requirements governing this property necessitating that the city permit multifamily development in this location, and also obtain the benefit of the City’s current zoning ordinances, with modern requirements and standards, which will improve the quality of the development for residents and neighbors,” City Attorney Eric Goers wrote in a March memo to the City Council.

Planning and zoning panel in favor

The appointed Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-1 in favor of rezoning at its meeting in February. Commissioners who voted in favor of the rezoning cited the need to increase the city’s housing stock, regardless of concerns about building size.

“ … I think we need more housing. We pay too much for housing and a lot of people can't afford to live here, and if we want to change that, we need to build more housing units. This is an opportunity to do that, which would bring housing prices down for all of us,” Commissioner Scott Quellhorst said at the February meeting.

Commissioner Billie Townsend, the lone dissenting vote, agreed that adding more housing units should be a priority but disagreed with this proposal.

“I'll probably be the only ‘no’ vote on this one, only because I'm looking at these units and the neighborhood, and they're huge. … I think it needs to be reconfigured, if it could be, but that's my opinion. It just doesn't fit in with the look of the neighborhood right now,” Townsend said at the February meeting.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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