Cedar Rapids council committee denies request to give up land to Robins

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Cedar Rapids City Council committee has rejected a request to move an annexation line between Cedar Rapids and Robins that has been in place for 14 years.

Wendling Quarries, which operates a quarry in Robins on about 300 acres of land, has asked the cities of Cedar Rapids and Robins to let Robins expand its border into a parcel of about 30 acres east of a section of Mentzer Road - on the Cedar Rapids side of the east-west annexation line between the two cities.

John Tuthill, property manager for Wendling Quarries, DeWitt, Iowa, said Tuesday that the company is seeking the change to get all of the company's property under one jurisdiction. The piece that the company wants to bring into Robins is largely undevelopable, he said, and is now in unincorporated Linn County. The annexation agreement between Robins and Cedar Rapids - as well as one between Cedar Rapids and Marion that now has expired - is intended to prevent battles for land among cities and to allow for planned growth.

“It's not a matter of life and death,” Tuthill said. ” … If it's something that does not fit with their prior agreements, it's no big deal one way or another.”

Vern Zakostelecky, a city of Cedar Rapids planner, told the council's Development Committee this week that the city of Cedar Rapids had worked to preserve a growth corridor in the C Avenue NE area north to County Home Road where the city currently owns land, including the Tuma Sports Complex.

Zakostelecky said the city might “send a message” that preserving a growth corridor really isn't important to the city if it allows the Wendling request. Other requests to encroach into the corridor could follow, he said.

City Council member Monica Vernon, chairwoman of the council's Development Committee, instantly agreed with Zakostelecky as did council committee member Chuck Swore. The committee's recommendation to the full City Council was to deny a change in Cedar Rapids annexation agreement with Robins.

Robins Mayor Ian Cullis said the Wendling request had nothing to do with Robins' interest in trying to expand across its agreement line with Cedar Rapids.

“It really doesn't make one difference one way or another to the city of Robins,” Cullis said. “There's going to be no battle over turf.”