Controversial development at center of University Heights special election

A relatively big development proposed for the small town of University Heights is at the center of a special City Council election.

One seat is up for grabs in the Jan. 11 election in the town of 1,050 residents. The two candidates are Jim Lane, who was appointed by the council to the seat in July, and Rosanne Hopson.

The winner will serve the remainder of a term expiring Dec. 31, 2011.

The two candidates are on opposite sides of an issue that has divided the community in recent months: the proposed redevelopment of the land at 1300 Melrose Ave. that is currently home to St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.

Developer Jeff Maxwell has proposed a two-building complex that would reach six stories high with 80 condos and commercial space.

That would be a big change in this bedroom community, which is made up primarily of single-family homes and is surrounded by Iowa City.

It's too big of a change for Hopson.

“It just doesn't fit with the community,” said the 52-year-old.

A former nurse who is now a fitness instructor, Hopson said she had never been politically active until the proposed development caught her attention in 2009.

She started meeting with a group of like-minded residents that has researched the matter, presented information to the council and put up candidates in the 2009 City Council election.

Hopson would prefer the site remain a church, but said her group proposed a four-story and two-story condo complex with no commercial space as a compromise over the larger project being planned.

That's been a no-go for the developer and the current council. That body includes Lane, who was appointed by the council to fill a vacated seat in large part because of his support for the project.

Lane, 66, said adding a large number of high-end condominiums and commercial space to a town that is almost entirely residential would allow the city to increase services and be less reliant on property taxes.

“We're going to have more positive choices to make in the future,” he said.

Lane thinks he's the right person to help guide the city through such a project. He's a vice president at Heartland Investment Associates, but he said he managed three plant expansions and the construction of a new plant in his previous job with Procter & Gamble, and he headed the Iowa City school district's facilities advisory committee earlier this decade.

A couple of weeks ago, the City Council approved the rezoning of the St. Andrew site. That was a big step, but there are still more to come.

Hopson hopes to be able to exert some influence over those future decisions, although she acknowledged that, with only one current member of the five-person council opposed to the development, it would take more than her election to bring about major changes.

Lane said there are still plenty of opportunities for the public to get involved and he expects the council to listen to them and play a role in healing the divide the project has caused in University Heights.

Interest in the election already is high. As of Dec. 29, 171 people had requested early ballots, more than double the final total in the city's 2009 election, which saw record voter turnout, according to the Johnson County Auditor's Office.

Those who vote in person on Jan. 11 will fill out their ballots at St. Andrew, the city's only polling place.