Iowa City to buy land for affordable housing

IOWA CITY — The city of Iowa City is planning to buy two properties on North Summit Street for $750,000 to provide land to build affordable housing.

The city expects to acquire the properties, at 1002 and 1006 N. Summit St., on Oct. 18.

City staff said the properties’ 1.85 acres of land provide enough space to build more than 30 affordable housing units. The units will be managed by the Iowa City Housing Authority.

The purchase will use what’s remaining of the $1.7 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds the city set aside for affordable housing efforts.

At this time, the housing plan is in the predevelopment phase, with the final cost and timeline yet to be determined.

‘High opportunity’ area for affordable housing

  Buy Photo

Tracy Hightshoe, the city’s neighborhood development services director, said the city hired a Realtor to identify residential properties with zoning to allow for developments of 20 to 25 units.

In addition, the Summit Street properties are close to neighborhood services and public transit. The land is near two parks, a grocery stores and a gas station.

“We also look to see how much our predevelopment cost would be,” Hightshoe said. “Do we have close access to city water and sewer? We make sure it's not in the flood plain. Those are things we look at, and this site just checks a lot of boxes.”

The property also falls outside of areas with “concentrated” levels of subsidized housing, according to the city’s affordable housing heat map.

The city plans to buy the mostly empty lot (with a garage) for $750,000. The combined properties, listed by Westwinds Real Estate Services, has been listed on Zillow for $850,000 since early March.

In 2023, the Iowa City Assessor’s office valued the parcels, with the garage, at $72,190 (1002) and $93,030 (1006).

‘Predevelopment’

Hightshoe said the city is working on finding a development consultant for the affordable housing projects, which may be funded through the city’s $3.75 million federal PRO housing grant. PRO stands for Pathways to Removing Obstacles.

“When we have our development team on board, which includes an architect, we'll start penciling through some ideas based on what we can do, height limitations of that zone, density requirements or restrictions from that zone,” Hightshoe said.

She said the city also is identifying funding sources for the pre-design process and construction.

“I know there's been calls from the neighborhood about what's going on, what's happening there,” she said. “And I think once we get our architect on board and can get some options about what the site will look like, that will be helpful. We're just not there yet.”

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com