Local Cedar Rapids developer positions new office building

CEDAR RAPIDS - There is a little fuss at city hall these days over how prolific local developer, the Ahmann Companies, is going to position a new office building on the former site of the Corner House Gallery, 2753 First Ave. SE.

The developer initially had planned to construct the three-story building so one of its sides, not its front, faces busy First Avenue SE. That orientation would be similar to the company's two new office buildings, which face one another and a parking lot in between them in the 1800 block of First Avenue SE.

But the city is changing its thinking. How a developer situates a new building along one of Cedar Rapids's busier streets matters more than it used to.

City Council member Scott Olson, an architect and Realtor, said this week that the city is starting to embrace a nationwide trend of planning and design that calls for new buildings to be placed close to the sidewalk on busier streets, with parking in the rear.

Such a design is thought to encourage people to walk, talk and get to know each other in both commercial and residential neighborhoods, Olson said.

The idea, he noted, is a throwback and is on display in many of Cedar Rapids's older neighborhoods where porches are in the front of houses, close to the street, garages are in the back and commercial buildings sit along sidewalks and hug the corners of blocks.

'So it's really going back to a design principle that happened in the past when we were more pedestrian-friendly versus car-friendly,” Olson said. 'We're trying to encourage that type of neighborhood congeniality and pedestrian-friendly commercial development.”

City Council member Monica Vernon, chairwoman of the council's Development Committee who spent a decade on the City Planning Commission in the past, has been the strongest city hall proponent of moving new buildings to the front of the property and to orient them to face the busy street.

'All kinds of studies have been done on this that show that it creates a sense of place when buildings address the street,” Vernon, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said after the City Council meeting on Tuesday.

'Having a sea of parking lots doesn't really do that for you,” Vernon said. 'So when you're creating community, and you shove the building back and put parking lots in front of them, it makes people lose that sense of place.”

In her campaign travels, Vernon said town squares in small towns all over the state feature buildings that are close to and address the street.

'They put their best foot forward, and it's a great welcoming mat, and it's really a great feeling to walk in those communities,” she said.

In no small part, Vernon's persistence has the City Council later this month poised to make changes to the city's zoning ordinance to encourage developers to situate buildings closer to the street.

Seth Gunnerson, a planner in the city's Community Development Department, said that department is proposing that the City Council eliminate current requirements of 25-foot setbacks in front and 15-foot setbacks on a corner side lot, so buildings can be built closer to sidewalks.

Setbacks already have been eliminated downtown, in New Bohemia and Czech Village, Gunnerson said.

Jennifer Pratt, the city's director of development and planning, said the proposed changes to the city's zoning ordinance will have flexibility because 'no one size fits all” when it comes to the challenges of particular sites that may confront developers.

At the same time, she said the city is hearing support from many people in the community, including from the development community, about two planning concepts - walkability and 'placemaking.”

Placemaking, Pratt said, means creating attractive, inviting areas where people want to go. The design and layout of new buildings can encourage that, she said.

Chad Pelley, business development manager and in-house civil engineer for Ahmann Companies, said this week that the verdict still is out on the company's plans for a new office building on former site of the Corner House Gallery, 2753 First Ave. SE.

Pelley said the building may face busy First Avenue SE if one particular tenant moves in. But it likely won't if a medical office moves in and needs its main lobby to face the building's parking lot.

Nonetheless, he said the city's proposed ordinance changes that eliminate building setbacks will give Ahmann Companies more options as it seeks to situate the new building on the site, including having the building and not its parking lot sit close to the corner of First Avenue SE and 28th Street SE to 'control the corner.”

'What they mean (by controlling the corner) is to let the building be the prominent feature,” Pelley said. 'Put the parking out of sight. Parking lots aren't beautiful, typically.

' ...

These are high quality buildings, they're good looking, let's showcase them.”

Pelley said site limitations under the city's current zoning and parking rules forced Ahmann Companies to build its two office buildings in the 1800 block of First Avenue SE to face one another and not First Avenue SE.

Even so, council member Vernon said she had hoped that the buildings could sit side by side facing First Avenue SE, with parking in the rear, so the buildings protect the residential street behind them from the traffic noise along First Avenue SE.

The city's Pratt said there is no fresher example of placemaking in the city right now than the Ahmann Companies-built new home of Geonetric Inc., 415 12th Ave. SE, in New Bohemia. It is a perfect example of design principles that the city wants to see in new buildings in commercial areas of the city.

The building sits at the sidewalk, its front door faces the street and parking is in back.

The city's Olson said a new building at 1305 First Ave. SE is an example of a newer construction that, if it had been possible, would have been better with parking in the back and not in front.

Vernon contended that some might say, 'Oh, my gosh, I don't know what she's talking about, and I don't care,” when she and others speak up about building orientation, walkability and a sense of place.

'But I think it's the kind of thing that people know when they see it,” she said.

In the years since the 2008 flood, Vernon said an assortment of planning experts have held workshops in the city, many of which have featured photographs, and participants being asked if they wanted to walk or spend time in a city that looks one way or another.

'Over and over again, people picked places that had buildings that addressed the street,” Vernon said.