Marissa Payne

The board that governs regional mental health and disability services advocated for spending down a nearly $9.2 million surplus before the end of the budget year in June by boosting support for underfunded services within its nine-county area.

The long-vacant historic downtown property that formerly housed the Dragon Restaurant may be revitalized and turned into a $4.2 million mixed-use building, potentially serving as the precursor of another go at redeveloping the Guaranty Bank site.

A local developer is looking to transform UnityPoint’s office building that was destroyed in a 2021 fire into a $18.5 million multifamily housing facility. It’s one of several projects seeking state workforce housing tax credits.

Local nonprofit Friends of Noelridge is fundraising to add another mural highlighting the beauty and benefits of native species to the Noelridge Greenhouse. Here’s how you can pitch in.

As he prepares to retire at the end of the month after nearly 30 years of service to the community, Les Garner, Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation president and CEO, considers his ultimate impact to be “the extent to which I have enabled those people to be better at what they do.”

Linn County Supervisor Louie Zumbach pitched streamlining services with area local governments in his State of the County address while lamenting record-high inflation and downplaying the role of state property tax reform in the fiscal woes facing the county.

A site in the New Bohemia District that has languished for years after the 2008 flood soon will be transformed with commercial space and 34 housing units.

The Linn County Board of Supervisors signaled preliminary interest in having the developer of the Dows Farm “agri-community” site buy and take over management of the farm elements of the property.

Beyond fiscal 2024, permanent funding will need to be identified for the Sustainability Department role aimed at boosting disaster resiliency. But the supervisors’ decision ends months of uncertainty over how to fund the role after they barred the use of ARPA dollars to pilot the position.

As part of Building Safety Month, Linn County Planning and Development staff met with sixth grade students at Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy in Cedar Rapids to teach them about the role building codes play in infrastructure stability during natural disasters.

Cedar Rapids expects a $3 million impact; Iowa City says the long-term impacts are ‘difficult to project’ but could affect library funding.

Linn County Supervisor Chair Louie Zumbach will deliver the State of the County address May 18. Here’s how to attend or tune in.

Gutschmidt Properties will receive city financial support to build single-family homes with accessory dwelling units in Oak Hill Jackson, and transform a block of blighted houses in the southwest quadrant into “Rainbow Road” as a symbol of LGBTQ inclusion.

The new Cedar Rapids location is taking shape at First Avenue and 19th Street NE — the site of the former Western Fraternal Life Association building — after the City Planning Commission advanced plans last week.

By June 1, Feed Iowa First will no longer farm on a portion of Linn County’s Dows Farm “agri-community” site after a faulty water well pushed the nonprofit off the land earlier than planned, prompting the developer to re-imagine the farm elements of the project.