Developers, Cedar Rapids agree on ‘flexible’ soil proposal

CEDAR RAPIDS - After almost a year of debate, city officials, a City Council subcommittee and a homebuilders group are seeing eye-to-eye on proposed rules intended to leave owners of new properties with greener grass and less compact soil that better absorbs stormwater.

The Cedar Rapids Infrastructure Committee gave a first blessing for a proposed soil-quality policy to proceed, during a meeting Tuesday at City Hall. It was the third version of the policy since last September, but it is the first heading to a public hearing before the City Council, probably in late August or early September.

'Two weeks ago, I didn't know where this would end up, and there was a lot of heartburn, and I think that heartburn is getting less and less,” said Dustin Kern, a land developer and board member of the Greater Cedar Rapids Homebuilders Association. 'I do think we are meeting objectives of the city for infiltration and greener grass. We don't want you to receive phone calls on any of those issues in the future.”

After receiving blowback from homebuilders saying earlier versions were too stringent and would drive up costs for homebuyers, city staff twice revised its proposal. But a series of recent tests helped give credence for taking action.

A test of almost 30 soil samples from around the city showed clay content in soil was nearly 69 percent, 97 of the soil was compacted, and the ground only had a .14 inches per hour stormwater infiltration capacity. Those all fall outside the preferred range.

'This will be across the board, not just housing we are looking at,” said City Councilor Scott Olson, noting the plan impacts residential, commercial, industrial and municipal projects.

City Council member Ralph Russell supported moving the plan forward but called for requiring measures to determine whether the requirements make a difference.

'If we are putting together something that creates a problem for people who do business with the city, and it is not making much difference in the long run, I'm not sure that is good public policy,” Russell said.

The new plan incorporates key recommendations from the homebuilders association allowing greater flexibility.

Under the proposal, developer can retain all topsoil on site and strip, stockpile and respread it to 4 inches thick. If the site had insufficient topsoil, the developer would be allowed to use one of eight methods approved in the Iowa Stormwater Management Manual to meet the standard.

'Going to a strict topsoil rule limits what we can do if there's not topsoil on site,” said Jen Winters, the Cedar Rapids public works director. 'We want to set up a policy that is flexible so down the road we are not getting into a situation where we are adding exponential costs because we don't know what the costs of that soil will be.”

If there's adequate topsoil on site, it removes extra step needed to till, but 'amending” the soil still would be required if the soil was inadequate, she said.

Winters said the policy is similar to those in Marion and Iowa City, which follow state rules, but are less strict than policies in Coralville and North Liberty. Robins and Hiawatha don't have policies, but officials in those cities expect to adopt policies similar to Cedar Rapids, Winters said.

She also noted the proposal is one of many policy changes, also including a change to how stormwater rates are calculated, intended to improve soil quality and reducing stormwater runoff.

'This may be as good of a policy as we can get,” said Robin Kash, a resident who's called for stronger stormwater policies. 'I'd like to see higher standards, but sounds like staff has done its homework and made good proposal and given some alternatives.”