Supervisors hear update on housing, infrastructure

Oct. 2—OSKALOOSA — The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors heard a report from city staff about potential new housing near the Lacey Recreation Complex.

The report came at the board's regular Monday meeting. City of Oskaloosa Development Services Director Shawn Christ presented an overview of the city's future plans for housing, infrastructure and development with a focus on the Lacey Complex area, the northwest bypass, the southeast connector project and the Mahaska/Oskaloosa Drives Economic Success (MODES) study.

Board Chair Mark Groenendyk told the audience that the presentation was to clarify where exactly the city plans to develop new housing.

Christ showed the board a land use map from Oskaloosa's 2022 Comprehensive Plan showing the areas that the city envisions being developed for housing in the next 10 to 20 years. The area he most emphasized is north of the Lacey Recreation Complex. The plan designates the land there for low density and medium density residential land use.

"[Medium density residential] could be anything from single family homes to townhouses, duplexes, and perhaps some smaller apartment buildings," Christ says. "[Low density residential] would be transitioning to more single family or perhaps duplex uses."

"Our plan is generally showing there is perhaps continued expansion of the Lacey Complex in the recreation component," Christ adds. "Ball fields, soccer fields around that complex, and then eventually transitioning to residential neighborhoods."

According to the city's map, the low to medium density residential land use areas would continue northwest to the northwest bypass project, where they would merge with mixed use and commercial designated land.

"Once that road is built, and the interchange built, we could see a larger draw for a gas station, fast food restaurant perhaps at that interchange," Christ says of the commercial use land. He describes mixed use land as "anything from high density residential to commercial uses."

On the south side of the northwest bypass interchange would be mixed light industrial land, which could include manufacturing, assembly, warehouse and commercial uses.

"With this vision and look into the future, we envision continued growth toward Pella, toward Des Moines along that Highway 163 corridor, and then that residential growth north and northwest of the Lacey complex," Christ says.

County Engineer Andew McGuire joined the presentation to talk about the northwest bypass, southeast connector and other ongoing infrastructure projects. McGuire's latest update about the northwest bypass project is that the Iowa Department of Transportation, which is administering the project, is currently working on right of way acquisition, utility relocation and similar activities in preparation for the project.

A newly uncovered hurdle the project is facing is that it will eliminate the aggregated intersection of Jewel Avenue, which currently connects Highways 92 and 163. One proposed solution is to construct a road loop from the bypass that would connect to Jewel Avenue. However, currently a pipeline is running beneath 163, which the DOT would require to be encased before building a road over it. McGuire says that the cost of encasing the line could be "multiple million dollar activity," making that particular solution unfeasible.

The county is continuing to work with the DOT to find a solution for Jewel Avenue. Groenendyk says one possible solution may be dead-ending Jewel Avenue.

"If the public has thoughts on what they want to do with the north end of Jewel Avenue, or on the south side of 163, now is the time to get involved, as we work with the Iowa DOT, for proposals or suggestions," Groenendyk says.

When it comes to the southeast connector project, which will connect Highways 63 and 23, McGuire says things are going well.

"That project is one that has been talked about for decades in the Oskaloosa area, and we've recently received Iowa's largest Revitalize Iowa's Sound Economy (RISE) grant that's ever been given, to the tune of about $10.6 million to construct that, so we've moved beyond the planning phase of that project, and we're now in a preliminary engineering design phase of actually putting that project to reality," he says.

McGuire attributes the southeast connector project's success to the new 500-acre certified industrial site that Oskaloosa officially unveiled in July.

He hopes to have the southeast connector project designed and into construction by spring of 2025, potentially finishing in early to mid 2026. He says the timeline will be subject to factors like weather and land acquisition.

In addition to the northwest bypass and southeast connector, Oskaloosa is also currently undertaking the MODES study, which combines a Planning and Environment Linkages (PEL) study and a streamlined Environmental Assessment. The goal is to optimize traffic flow on the east side of Oskaloosa.

"That's what this MODES study dives into," McGuire says, "is what is the best ... route to get from the south side of Oskaloosa to the north side of Oskaloosa on the east side of Oskaloosa."

The MODES study is a two-year study that is projected for completion at the end of May 2025.

In other news:

The board approved a letter of support for the Dakota Access Pipeline that currently runs through Mahaska County. In June, the board heard from a Dakota Access Pipeline representative about a pending Environmental Impacts Statement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in response to significant opposition to the pipeline from tribal and environmental groups.

Now, Groenendyk says the pipeline crosses U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property as well.

The board has been asked to sign a letter of support for a reissuance of the pipeline's easement.

The letter of support outlines property tax revenues received by the county from the pipeline as well as the uses they have been put to. According to the document, Mahaska County has received more than $9 million in property taxes between 2017-2021, with over $2.5 million in additional property taxes estimated to be paid for the 2022 tax year.

Groenendyk says he has asked the county auditor's and treasurer's offices to double check those numbers before accepting them.

The letter states that the county has used the money to fund school, road construction, maintenance, emergency services and other essential, ongoing needs.

"I understand that there were five solutions [to the opposition]. Two or three of the solutions were to shut the pipeline down. The other two left it open. This is important to the county, because if it is shut down, that would eliminate the property tax funding on the pipeline," Groenendyk says. "If you understand what that means, our budget's already set for this year, and if the courts decide to shut the pipeline down now, I think its roughly $1.5 million a year Mahaska County receives in property tax revenue to the school districts and all the things the county does with it."

The board unanimously approved the letter of support.

Channing Rucks can be reached at crucks@oskyherald.com.