IMPORTANT!!! LHPS STATEMENT. COUNCIL BLUFFS REAP SUSPENSION. DODGE PARK PLAN.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
LHPS calls on Council Bluffs City leaders to stop converting park & greenspace for development and end its long-standing Iowa DNR REAP suspension by replacing parkland lost as required to offset the failed Playland Park development
The Loess Hills Preservation Society calls on the City of Council Bluffs to stop plans to sell the historic, riverfront, Dodge Park for housing and commercial purposes, and to meet the Iowa DNR requirement of replacing greenspace lost with the conversion of Playland Park so the DNR’s suspension of the City to request REAP funds can be lifted.
“It’s outrageous that DNR requirements were never met as part of the use of Playland Park for commercial buildings including a huge, unused parking garage, so the City remains under a long-standing DNR REAP program suspension. This suspension prohibits our City from benefiting from the popular program to fund attractive, natural environs enhancements. Worse yet, City officials are now proposing to do the same thing to nearby Dodge Park” said Terry Oswald, Society President and Iowa DNR Pott County REAP Proposal Review Committee Member.
“It’s embarrassing enough to be a local Pottawattamie County REAP Proposal Review Committee Member while my own City is suspended from submitting proposals, because the City never met the DNR requirement to offset the loss of greenspace when Playland Park was converted by identifying a net equal addition of space elsewhere in the City.
Despite the repeated efforts of myself and others with the Loess Hills Preservation Society, DNR staff and individuals with other organizations to help the City identify ways to meet the requirement to end the REAP suspension, City officials have not been receptive or engaged. And now here we are again digging ourselves into an even deeper hole.”
Dodge Park Golf Course opened in 1927 after a donation of scenic, sensitive riverfront land by members of the famous Dodge family of Council Bluffs to the City. The donation was made so citizens in our then mostly union, working class could be able to enjoy the same sort of privileges as Omaha Country Club elite but at an affordable rate. Whether you were Black, Jewish or a member of another minority, the course and park was available to you. That purpose of Dodge Park is even more significant today.
Oswald continued, “there is a lot of fear mongering and misleading carrot dangling going on too, by City officials to justify using the park for development.”
“In addition, the Loess Hills Preservation Society has lost its ability to submit proposals for REAP funds through the City as planned from the beginning to enhance Iowa’s newest State Preserve named Vincent Bluff Nature Preserve created by our organization with our partner, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.”
Vincent Bluff is a one-of-a-kind 41-acre, urban bluffs land prairie preserve located along Council Bluffs signature scenic bluff near I-80 and I-29. It is enjoyed by citizens and countless others from across the region including naturalists, researchers and students.
“Since the City seems obsessed to drive forward with plans to develop Dodge Park, we see no hope in ever being able to secure REAP funds donated by citizens for Vincent Bluff or frankly any other outdoor project such as for trails or other purposes. Sadly, we appear to have permanently lost the City as a conduit to the DNR REAP program for any natural environs project.”
City officials argue that Dodge Park located between Harrah’s Casino and the old Frito Lay Plant location must be converted to provide space to solve a housing shortage issue and take advantage of a financial opportunity to make money by selling it to construct housing and commercial buildings to support those working in downtown Omaha and generate property tax revenue.
Oswald counters by noting that a substantial amount of other space is available within the city limits. In addition, most, of the City’s previous projects accompanied by similar promises have failed such as the nearby Playland Park development which now hosts empty buildings and a large parking garage. The Playland Park conversion / development also has caused even more acute flooding issues with adjacent properties as was acknowledged during the most recent City Council meeting with citizen testimonies.
Dodge Park also is flood land located right along the Missouri River that periodically requires infill to be delivered to repair flood damage. Anecdotally, some engineers including those with the Army Corps of Engineers have stated at public plan review sessions that the park simply is not suitable for construction. The water table is too high, and Dodge Park won’t bear the weight of buildings unless extraordinary, expensive measures are taken.
“We call on the City to not move forward for all of the reasons noted here and also because prior conversion DNR requirements at failed Playland Park remain unmet as the City remains under a REAP Program suspension.”
“We also call on the City to return to its superior previous course of balancing development with natural environs enhancements and additions funded by local citizen donations to REAP. Honestly, we want our partner, the City of Council Bluffs, back. We live in a time when the natural environs are one of the most powerful tools to retain and build a community. Get back on course” said Oswald.
The Loess Hills Preservation Society is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that works to protect the unique natural resources and landforms of the Loess Hills through education, land protection projects, sound land use planning and land acquisition. It is the mission of the Society to promote and utilize voluntary land protection methods and land acquisition to ensure that the Loess Hill’s resource integrity continues for generations.
The Society pioneered the use of positive, win-win approaches to conservation and protection and is credited with leading successful efforts to identify alternate cost-effective environmentally impact neutral sources of fill material for many of the large development projects completed in the areas. The Society also has supported efforts to update local and county zoning ordinances with Loess Hills sensitive and economic supporting land use updates. The organization also co-hosted and co-founded Council Bluffs fall festival named: Autumn in the Bluffs and has made more positive impacts in the Loess Hills region than space and time here can permit.
-President, Loess Hills Preservation Society,
-Member, Pottawattamie County Iowa DNR REAP Proposal Committee,
-Chair, Friends of the Bluffs – an LHPS program
-Other