Cedar Rapids, builders at odds over topsoil costs

CEDAR RAPIDS - City officials and developers are thousands of dollars apart on the estimated cost effect from a proposed rule requiring 8 inches of topsoil restoration after construction. The gap was highlighted during a Cedar Rapids infrastructure meeting Wednesday.

The policy, intended to control stormwater runoff and improve water quality, would mean an additional $3,300 at most, based on contractor estimates for a sample 0.4-acre home lot, said Jon Durst, Cedar Rapids sewer superintendent. Developers, who are required to get erosion control permits, would have eight acceptable methods for soil management, such as tilling and compost to meet the 8-inch requirement, he said.

'It provides flexibility to our builders and developers,” Durst said. 'It provides eight methods. That means any lot characteristic that is most pertinent to them and most economical they can choose that method.”

Ideally, the topsoil would absorb rainwater, curb the inundation of sewers that leads to flash flooding, provide fertile lawns and foster better drinking water.

Dustin Kern, a land consultant with DK Land Services and board member of the Cedar Rapids Homebuilders Association, cited the same sample lot, which is in Wexford Heights. But he estimated that restoring 4 inches of topsoil would cost $7,375. The estimate grew to $10,600 for 8 inches, compared with a usual cost of $2,200, he said.

'Ultimately, it's the homeowners who are going to pay for it, or it would be up to the developer how much they want to eat into their profits,” Kern said after the meeting.

Others at the packed meeting cast doubt on whether the rule would reap the intended benefits or whether residents and builders would turn to other communities with less stringent rules.

Jennifer Fencl, representing the Indian Creek Watershed Management Authority, favors the rules. She said they align with her organization's stormwater management plan.

Cedar Rapids began working on the rule last summer to combat flash flooding, but the proposal is more stringent than a 4-inch topsoil requirement the state abandoned last year. The state now requires minimizing compaction and preserving topsoil, but an exemption exists if restoration is 'infeasible” for technological or economic reasons.

About 250 homes a year are built in Cedar Rapids. The city does not test for topsoil, so no data exists on topsoil stripping, Cedar Rapids utilities spokeswoman Sara Baughman said by email.

Scott Olson, a Cedar Rapids City Council member on the infrastructure committee, rejected the notion that Cedar Rapids would be at a competitive disadvantage, saying surrounding communities would adopt mirroring policies.

Olson and Durst said the feedback Wednesday probably would not prompt changes. But alternative plans, which developers said they will offer before the next infrastructure committee meeting March 1, will be considered.

The policy isn't expected to reach City Council for approval until late spring or early summer, Olson said.