Prized for its rural serenity and picturesque landscapes, the land north of Iowa City surrounding Coralville Lake and Lake Macbride presents planners with an enigma.
The area’s lure of rolling hills, placid waterways and open air has drawn many residents toward its quiet quarters.
However, migration has been so profuse in the last two decades that rising population could be threatening the same rural ambience that pulls residents from the city to the countryside.
This influx of residents has left the area, once dominated by agricultural land, facing an identity crisis teetering between farm country and suburban spread.
This year Johnson County planning officials are hoping to determine what that identity should be. They are doing that by reviewing a 20-year-old land use plan and determining whether it should be revised.
Different demands from farmers, residents, environmentalists and people who use the area for recreation, however, have given planning officials differing ideas about what is the best use for the North Corridor’s land.
For the corridor’s estimated 15,000 residents, the growing population could turn their rural dreamland into a suburban nightmare.
John and Betty Rockensies, who moved in 1981 to a wooded area north of North Liberty, have witnessed the wave of residents flowing into the Coralville Lake area for nearly two decades.
“When we first moved in people said we were crazy, that it was too far out,” said John Rockensies.
The Rockensieses said there wasn’t a neighbor in sight when they moved into their home. Now, an entire residential development surrounds them.
Despite heavier traffic on the road by their house and rural vistas replaced by homes, the Rockensieses said they still enjoy a quiet, laid-back lifestyle.
“We like it here. We would prefer things the way they were, but you never go back,” said John Rockensies.
Concerns about changing the open environment of the area have been aired before. But the intensity is growing. The surge in residential development has raised a red flag for some county officials, who are worried that sprawling developments are hurting farming operations and putting stress on the environment.
“If we want to sustain farming as an aspect of Johnson County economics, we have to find a way of containing residential sprawl,” said Supervisor Jonathan Jordahl.
Jordahl argues that inflated land prices related to residential encroachment are forcing farmers to pay more property taxes and limited their ability to expand. As a result, farmers are choosing to leave their farms, said Jordahl.
Leo Shima, a farmer just outside of Solon, said he has witnessed the shift as more residential areas spring up throughout the corridor.
“Developers can pay a whole lot more for the land than farmers can earn from it,” said Shima.
Shima said the housing boom has hiked land prices, and retiring farmers and small operators are choosing to sell their property rather than reinvest in the land.
R.J. Moore, the county’s assistant planning and zoning administrator, said land value usually doubles as a result of rezoning from agricultural to residential.
The county adopted a land use plan in 1979 but critics of the county’s land use decisions since then have said it no longer meets demands.
Since 1980, members of the Board of Supervisors have approved rezoning of more than 1,500 acres from agricultural to residential use in the four townships making up the corridor.
“I can’t say I am 100 percent for it either way,” said Shima, who put three residential lots on his father’s land in order to pay his father’s medical bills. “I guess you put the land to its best use.”
Disagreement among supervisors about how to put the land to its best use has sent the board into a series of laborious work sessions to edit and revise a rough draft that a land use committee has produced for the county.
The supervisors are working on the new plan under a general mission statement: to guide urbanization while preserving the environment and protecting agricultural interests.
While county officials agree on the mission statement’s wording, their interpretations reveal disparities.
Jordahl has called the plan “anti-agricultural,” arguing that is eliminating the old plan’s protection of farmers.
Supervisor Stephen Lacina has called the drafted plan “anti-growth,” saying it puts too many restrictions on farmers and land developers alike.
Lacina said overregulation in the plan being considered will stifle growth in Johnson County. If the county is to grow and prosper economically, it needs to accommodate residential growth in both urban and rural areas, Lacina said.
Moore, one of the draft plan’s authors, said there is room for residential growth without endangering the environment. However, to accommodate new residential neighborhoods the county needs to upgrade roads for more traffic, provide utilities and expand law enforcement, said Moore.
The debate facing the supervisors centers on whether the county’s investment of tax money is worth the return, said Moore.
Supervisors recently asked the planning and zoning department to look for a consultant to study the potential effects of more development in the corridor. Supervisors said they hope the projections will give them a better understanding of development’s environmental, economical and social implications.
Supervisor Chairwoman Sally Stutsman said, “The study will put some facts on the table as to whether growth pays for itself.
“(The plan) is still very much a draft. The board is proceeding cautiously because it wants to deliver a good product.”
Supervisors said they hope to finish work on the land use plan by the end of this year.
With the plan still undetermined, the North Corridor’s future is hard to foresee. But if history serves as evidence, the tendency for more residential development seems unavoidable.
