Iowa City school district asks area officials to work on housing issues

IOWA CITY - Using discussion on the Iowa City Community School District's diversity policy as a springboard, the district's board of education is asking local officials to help address zoning and housing discrepancies.

In an Oct. 13 letter from district officials to the mayors of Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, University Heights and Hills and the chair of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, the school board has asked that each municipality adopt comparable policies on inclusionary zoning, reinvest in areas in the community dealing with socio-economic isolation and place restrictions on rental units and rental density.

'I think the main goal is to let the municipalities know that the district is committed to working as a community partner,” district spokesman Chace Ramey said. 'Just as education is an effort by the entire community, we think this issue is also one that takes a collaborative effort by all of us.”

Inclusionary zoning entails offering bonus densities in exchange for including a percentage of affordable housing options in new construction.

According to the letter, local housing patterns and zoning regulations have a direct impact on the local education system, particularly when addressing student populations and attendance areas.

'Too often, the District is left trying to navigate a contradictory set of zoning regulations in an attempt to best plan for educating the students of one district who reside in six different municipal communities,” the letter states.

In the letter, the district requests that each community codify inclusionary zoning in municipal planning and that a joint task force be formed to discuss the community's needs.

Iowa City Manager Tom Markus said a multijurisdictional approach comes with its list of challenges, in particular the needed communication and time to put together codifying language.

'We're evaluating the content of the letter and then we will report back to the City Council on what (the school board) has suggested in terms of their ideas on land planning issues and how they relate to, I suspect, the issue of the diversity policy,” he said.

The letter comes nearly two years after the board passed its diversity policy in early 2013, which requires schools to be within a certain range of each other in the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, a measure of poverty. It also sets capacity requirements on high schools and junior high schools before more secondary schools can be built.

Johnson County Supervisor Pat Harney said he was familiar with the letter, but added that the board has not yet formally discussed it.

He said requests for inclusionary zoning might not have a drastic impact on the county.

'We don't have a huge issue in the county. We've got some mobile home or trailer court issues in the county,” he said. 'At some point I think we need to discuss that letter.”

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