Fire resistant

CEDAR RAPIDS - Don't accuse the city of giving special treatment to its former leaders.

Dave Kramer, a former parks commissioner, City Council member and parks director, is now fighting to save his timber in northwest Cedar Rapids from City Hall and the Fire Department.

Kramer and his wife, Sue, both landscape architects, were minding their own business in August when city officials knocked on their door at 3592 Rogers Rd. NW to tell them the city wanted to buy 2.17 acres of their property for the city's new west-side district fire station.

The Kramers, both of whom will be 61 by the end of the month, aren't interested. But that is not stopping the city, which has taken the first steps in the eminent domain and condemnation process that can force the sale of property for a public purpose.

“It's not about the money,” Kramer says. “If it was about money, we'd be out there putting a development up. It's about cutting trees off and ruining my hill and my woods. I don't need their money.”

In 2004, the Kramers lost four of their 19.5 mostly timbered acres in a forced sale to the city - at $16,100 an acre - so the city could cut through a wooded hill to extend O Avenue NW west across Edgewood Road NW into a realigned Rogers Road NW. Trees on another acre-and-a-half came down in the grading for the road.

“Let's not call it a sale. Let's say, ‘They took,'” says Dave Kramer.

The Kramers moved to the acreage just west of Edgewood Road NW some 35 years ago when part of the property was an apple orchard. The orchard went by the way, but a timber remained all around the Kramers' house and the flower farm they run on their property. Trails run through their woods for walking and for riding their three horses.

The city originally planned to build the new district fire station a couple of blocks south, on vacant, flat land at 1200 Edgewood Rd. NW, on the northwest corner of Edgewood Road NW and Crestwood Drive NW.

However, the owners of that preferred site, Westgate Communities of Dubuque, proposed a sale price that was “very far off” from the price that the city offered for the property, Fire Chief Mark English reports that. Negotiations have since broken down, he says.

The Fire Department's second option was the Kramers' property.

English says the Fire Department now considers the Kramers' property its top pick and likes it better that the other proposed site.

A traffic signal, for instance, is already in place at Edgewood Road NW at O Avenue NW/Rogers Road NW; adding one at the Crestwood Drive NW intersection would have cost about $150,000, English says. The street surface on Crestwood Drive NW also would need to be beefed up for fire trucks, while the new street at O Avenue/Rogers Road NW is fine, he adds.

As for the Kramers' trees, English vows the city will take down no more trees than required for the fire station and its parking lot. He says his own house sits on a wooded lot where most of the trees remained after construction.

“I've seen lots clear cut, and that will not be allowed on this lot,” English promises. “I would pattern this project after my own house - take down no more trees than absolutely necessary.”

Dave Kramer says he suspects the city concluded that the corporate owner at the Edgewood-Crestwood site has “deeper pockets” and is more likely to fight the city in court than the Kramers.

Sue Kramer recalls her work in years past to help the city develop an ordinance where it would try to save trees rather than allowing developers to clear cut timber to make way for new developments.

“But they kept whacking the trees down,” she says. “I thought, at least I've got 20 acres here. We can protect our trees here.”

The city has hired Cook Appraisal of Iowa City to appraise the Kramers' 2.17 acres, and the city has increased its initial offer to the Kramers from $1 per square foot to $1.15 per square foot. The new figure would pay them $109,000 for the 2.17 acres. The condemnation process allows the Kramers to get their own appraisal; a condemnation board ultimately sets the property's value. The owner can appeal the value to the court system.

In one breath, Dave Kramer says, “We're not selling,” and in the next, his wife guesses they won't have any choice. Sue Kramer says she might consider moving if they lose out to the city a second time.

Chief English says the City Council makes the final call on the use of eminent domain and condemnation. He adds, though, that the city needs to get moving on the new fire house so it doesn't lose state grant money for the project.

The city's plan is to open the district station the same day in June 2013 that it opens a new Central Fire Station between First and Second avenues SE and Seventh and Eighth streets SE. The city will close an existing east-side district station at 1424 B Ave. NE when the new stations open. The city is not returning to the flood-ruined west-side Central Fire Station at 222 Third St. NW.

Rita Rasmussen, the city's senior real estate officer, reports the city has used the eminent domain process an estimated 11 times in the last five years, main for a house or pieces of property for street projects or other public improvements.