Cedar Rapids council endorses Wellington Heights neighborhood plan

The Wellington Heights neighborhood now has a City Council-approved neighborhood plan.

The plan, which has been months in the making and has featured the help of city staff, neighborhood members and planning consultants, calls for the core city neighborhood to preserve its historic character while it seeks to improve neighborhood safety and the enforcement of city codes, encourages owner-occupied housing, provides more usable public spaces and plays up its proximity to the medical district and the downtown.

The plan calls for some very specific improvements: increased street lighting; annual "clean-sweep" days to remove litter; slowing traffic on 15th Street SE through the neighborhood and increasing pedestrian safety on Mount Vernon Road SE on the neighborhood's edge; and using Park Court SE as a "festival street" for neighborhood events.

Council member Pat Shey, whose council district includes part of Wellington Heights, said on Tuesday that a neighborhood plan is an "important document, and he said the City Council has a good track record of adopting plans and then executing on them. The city is making good progress on a similar plan for the downtown, he said.

Shey pointed to the city's new nuisance abatement initiative and the significant investment in the neighborhood by the Affordable Housing Network Inc. and he said both efforts already are helping in the neighborhood.

Paula Mitchell, the city's grants programs manager, told the council on Tuesday that the Wellington Heights plan will be implemented over perhaps 15 years and change along the way.

Justin Wasson, the Wellington Heights Neighborhood Association president, called on the council Tuesday to help the neighborhood by focusing for starters on small items - burned out streetlights and broken curbs and sidewalks --- that he said can help bolster the look and the reputation of the neighborhood.

"We're trying to improve this neighborhood, and you hear a lot about bad landlords and a lot about bad tenants, maybe," Wasson told the council on Tuesday. "… But how difficult is it to sell a house when your curbs are not in good repair, when your street lighting is not good, when the general aesthetics, the sidewalks are bumpy? It's not easy.

"I'm hoping with this plan we now have, we can start focusing on just this very basic issues that should just be expected. … I guarantee you that any work you do is going to be very appreciated."