Housing development for former Ellis Golf practice area gets go-ahead

CEDAR RAPIDS - Some neighbors objected to the end. Even so, the City Council, on a 9-0 vote, approved a zoning change that will allow local developer Joe Ahmann to build 28 residential units on the six-acre site that used to be a chipping green practice area for Ellis Golf Course.

The units in the new development, which sits next to the golf course and Ellis Park, will include eight stand-alone homes, five duplexes and two five-unit row houses. All will be owner-occupied.

A much larger group of residents came together as People for Parks back in 2008 to beat back a plan for a large complex with affordable-rent apartments on the site.

But such a large group of opponents did not emerge this time to oppose Ahmann's housing plan.

Aggie Doyle, who has been chairwoman of People for Parks, led the opposition in 2008. But she told the City Council on Tuesday that many people in the neighborhood like Ahmann's plan despite some opponents to it.

Doyle, who is president of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association, said there is little doubt that the city will sell the chipping green area to a developer at some point. She said Ahmann's proposal is one that will enhance the neighborhood. He builds 'a quality product,” she said.

Neighbors James Stratton and Greg Morton, who live on 16th Street NW next the proposed Ahmann development, said the street system isn't adequate to support 28 new residential units and that water runoff will be a problem.

Morton said he remembered a television interview with a person involved in selling the chipping green area to the city many years ago who said the understanding was that the city would use the land only for golf or a park.

Stratton said the housing will hurt the 'beauty” of the park.

Vern Zakostelecky, a senior planner for the city, said the six acres of the chipping green area was not part of the original land donated to the city by the Ellis family for the park. The city acquired it later, he said.

At last month's meeting of the City Planning Commission, Caleb Mason, the city's redevelopment analyst, said the city staff researched the chipping-green site this spring. They found that it was deeded to the city in 1956 for $6,000 by a golf association. The city had not uncovered any restrictions on the use of the property, he said.

The commission approved the zoning change for the Ahmann development on a 7-0 vote.

Zakostelecky said 16th Street NW, from Ellis Boulevard NW up to the chipping green area next to Ellis Golf Course, needs work now. He said the additional vehicle traffic that comes with the new development may qualify the street for renovation in the city's 10-year, Paving for Progress program funded by revenue from the local-option sales tax.

In answer to a question from council member Ann Poe, Zakostelecky said the Ahmann development is designed to keep water runoff on the site far in excess of the city requirements.

Poe said the project required a 'fine-balancing act,” and she said she concluded that the 28 new residential units would benefit a part of the city that had lost many residents from the damage the flood of 2008 caused.

Sven Leff, the city's parks and recreation director, said on Tuesday that the Ellis Golf Course stopped using the chipping green area sometime between 1996 and 2000.

Ahmann has said he will invest $4.9 million in the housing project. His firm has said the appraised value of the Ellis chipping-green property is $140,000.

In August, the council strongly endorsed the Ahmann project for the site and directed the city manager to negotiate a development agreement with Ahmann. So Tuesday's approval of the zoning change for the property was no surprise.