Iowa City Council defers rezoning for controversial 84-unit apartment complex

IOWA CITY — The Iowa City Council voted Tuesday to defer a rezoning request that would allow for the development of a controversial 84-unit apartment complex on Iowa City’s north side.

A petition of protest to the rezoning, which can be submitted by property owners in the proposed zoning area, has been filed. As a result, six out of seven members of the city council — not just a simple majority — would need to approve the rezoning request.

At the council meeting Tuesday, Mayor Bruce Teague said he had determined there would not be six votes in favor of the rezoning, though a formal vote was not taken. No one from the council spoke up during the meeting to say they supported or opposed the rezoning.

All council members voted in favor of the deferral to allow time for the council to confer with the Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission, which approved the rezoning request.

Multiple north side residents expressed concerns at the meeting about the size of the development compared with the rest of the neighborhood, increased traffic, and pedestrian access.

The proposed complex, which would be built north of Happy Hollow Park between Governor and Dodge streets, 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 and developer look to compromise

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 and medium density multifamily zone.

Plans call for demolition of 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.

“The city would like to see a cohesive development pattern, as opposed to that which would be allowed under the current zoning,” Senior Planner Anne Russett said at the city council meeting. “... The city council's strategic plan includes a goal related to establishing partnerships and collaborations, particularly in the interest of advancing the city's housing goals, and meeting our housing goals requires increasing the overall supply of housing, which this rezoning would do.”

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.

“I would characterize clearly this as a compromise. Certainly the city is not getting everything you would love. Neither is the developer. I think we're getting about the best project we can expect to get, given the court's ruling in 2018,” City Attorney Eric Goers said at the Tuesday meeting.

Planning and zoning commission 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.

Next Steps

The city council will consult with the planning and zoning commission at a work session next month, either May 6 or 20, pending commissioner availability. Immediately following that work session, the matter will go before the council again at its next regular meeting.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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