Kirkwood property rezoned for RuffaloCODY office, call center

A zoning change to accommodate a new office and call center for RuffaloCODY in southwest Cedar Rapids was approved by the City Council Tuesday night.

RuffaloCODY, according to the Vern Zakostelecky, a city planner, has outgrown its building on the east side of the Kirkwood Community College campus. Kirkwood owns the 52-acre site that was rezoned.

With the zoning approval the company will build a two-story, 92,000 square foot building on a 15-acre site east of Kirkwood on the northwest corner of C Street and 76

^th

Avenue SW. Plans show future expansion of 21,000 square feet.

Kirkwood plans to use the current RuffaloCODY building for educational purposes once the company moves to its new location.

The only concern expressed was from Councilman Don Karr who questioned the size of the parking lot. RuffaloCODY wants 378 slots with the possibility to add 200-plus parking space in the future. It needs that many, Zakostelecky said, because of employees' overlapping work schedules.

“Maybe a company needs to build a parking ramp … instead of eating up all that green space,” he said.

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