Iowa City looking at new east side sports complex partially due to City Park flooding

IOWA CITY - A pair of projects being explored could bring a new sports complex to the east side of Iowa City while possibly relocating some of the amenities - including ball diamonds - away from Lower City Park.

This week, the city entered into a $45,000 contract with Iowa City's landscape designer Confluence to create a master plan document for Lower City Park. Confluence was selected out of seven applicants following a Request for Proposals process earlier this year.

Also this month, the city issued another RFP to find the best applicant to draft an East Side Sports Complex Master Plan - the contract will be for $50,000 - for an east side sports complex.

Geoff Fruin, assistant to the city manager, said the two efforts are connected to flooding of Lower City Park in recent years which further stresses the city's growing demand for sporting fields.

'These two projects, while separate, are somewhat related,” Fruin said. 'As the community is growing we know the need for ball fields is increasing, at the same time we have some ball fields that are becoming more difficult to maintain, specifically I'm talking about the City Park baseball fields, that have experienced flooding several times over the past decade, so we have to rethink the location of those ball fields and ask if City Park is the right home for those going forward.”

In recent years, portions Lower City Park have closed on multiple occasions during the baseball season due to flooding of the Iowa River.

'Those teams have to scramble to find open fields not only here in Iowa City, but also in other communities, which are likely already experiencing high demand,” Fruin said. 'It can be really disruptive to those summer programs and team sports.”

Confluence will create a master plan to provide direction to city staff for any future development and use of Lower City Park, where carnival rides, Riverside Festival Stage and youth baseball league fields are located.

Specific items to be addressed in the park study are flood resiliency of facilities and landscaping, trails and Iowa River development, programs and services, and a 10-year plan, according to the RFP document.

A formal presentation of the final report on Lower City Park is expected to take place in September.

Mike Moran, director of parks and recreation, said the sports complex RFP is exploratory in nature, to help the city get a better grasp on what they could build on the 75 acres of city-owned land east of Taft Avenue SE and about a quarter mile south of the site planned for the new Hoover Elementary School.

'We don't get wide open spaces all that often so when we have them, we want to figure out what to do with them,” Moran said, adding that the space could attract more tournaments to the area.

Baseball, soccer or rugby fields are just a few examples on the table, he added.

If built, the complex, which would likely be funded as a capital improvement project, would be smaller than the 110-acre Kickers Soccer Park, but would be the largest multi-field space in Iowa City, Moran said.

Proposals for the complex are due later this month, with the roughly four to six month master planning process expected to be finished and a draft submitted this November. A formal presentation of the final report is tentatively scheduled for January 2016, according to the RFP document.

That said, Fruin added that as a master plan, the project will have a multiyear shelf life, to allow the city time to determine when and if to proceed with the sports complex.

We'd look at it on a level playing field with other park and recreation projects and other capital improvement projects in the city. This is truly a long-term endeavor but we know there is a need for additional ball fields as our community grows,” he said. 'This will get us in a position so that we can act going forward.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com