Cedar Rapids Country Club expansion plans back before City Council

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids Country Club’s expansion plans will return again Tuesday to the City Council after some of the elected officials tabled consideration of the club’s requests earlier this month to allow more time to address neighbors’ concerns.

Four of nine City Council members faced conflicts prompting their recusals from voting May 10 on the Cedar Rapids Country Club’s expansion plans, leaving five voting members to decide on the requests. Three supported tabling action, with council members Scott Overland and Scott Olson in opposition to the delay.

The Country Club is looking to expand over seven residential lots and potentially vacated Fairway Terrace SE right of way to develop a tennis complex and courts, expand the parking lot and modify the driving range to boost amenities for members. Rezoning would bring the nearly 185-acre site into a single zoning district.

Several dozen residents, mostly from Country Club Heights, petitioned against the requests. In an approximately two-hour public hearing, most addressing the council at the May 10 meeting slightly favored the project, provided the club meet conditions to make the facility more compatible with the neighborhood.

The city Board of Ethics advised Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell and council member Tyler Olson to recuse themselves because O’Donnell’s husband is a member and Olson is a member of the club, council member Marty Hoeger has a business interest and council member Ann Poe was advised by the city attorney to recuse herself because, as a nearby resident, the proposed expansion could have an impact on her property.

The five voting council members asked the Country Club to provide more information on certain conditions. Those included structural design alterations and improved renderings, more parking options to reduce street crowding from larger events, a response to stormwater management concerns and additional commitments to landscaping on the property’s western edge.

According to council documents, the new renderings show shingles instead of a metal roof, dormers on part of the roof, architectural features inspired by the surrounding Colonial-style houses and a shed roof on the west side to minimize the view of the structure to adjacent homes.

The Country Club also is proposing adding more parking to the northeast, near the pool, and expanded paving leading to the clubhouse to incorporate three full aisles of parking in the main parking lot. The club also proposes developing street parking along 27th Street Drive SE, for an increase of 78 spaces to 264.

As for the Country Club’s stormwater management plan, runoff will mainly be directed from the building and other hard surfaces southerly to south of vacated 27th Street Drive SE through bioretention, swales, permeable pavers, underground chambers and detention or retention ponds. No increase in runoff will be permitted to flow westerly onto adjacent properties.

The parking lot proposed north of the current lot will drain northerly with a separate stormwater management system, according to a letter to council from Modern Design Architects.

To address landscaping and lighting questions, the Country Club provided examples of parking lot lighting with fixtures around 10 feet above ground placed approximately 70 feet or more from adjacent property lines. This would be in addition to fence and evergreen screening.

The Country Club’s requests are on the regular agenda for the council’s 4 p.m. Tuesday meeting at City Hall, 101 First St. SE.

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com