Residents Have Their Say At Public Hearing ~ Bridgewater Development, Coralville IA
A couple of weeks ago I got a letter from the City of Coralville informing me of a proposed development in an area that backs up to my house and my neighborhood. It was a two liner, and included a plan of the proposed Bridgewater Development. I'm a Realtor®. I'm also a Homeowner. I was a bit torn about what I thought about this plan. (2 lines is hardly enough info to form an opinion on). On the one side I often walk in that neighborhood and with my Realtor® hat on had often wondered what the hold up was in developing what is a prime piece of land in a prime Coralville location. On the other hand, as a homeowner I'm not fussed on the idea of having the view of my wooded back yard spoilt with apartments about 200+ feet away. You see my dilemma, right?
So anyway, off I march to the city council meeting scheduled for 6.30pm yesterday evening. And was that a good decision! I might have thought I had a dilemma before I went to the council meeting. I sure don't now!
What did I learn? I learned there's a lot of work to be done to get a project in front of the Coralville City Council and to get it approved. I also learned that residents impacted by the project do have a voice. In fact yesterday the voice of my neighbors living on the access road to the Bridgewater Development were heard and only part of the project was approved.
What was the takeaway from yesterday's meeting? I went in there thinking that the project would be rubber stamped. It wasn't. An excellent presentation from my neighbors saw to that. (They were so well prepared they actually had me thinking about Hillary!) There is no doubt, there are outstanding questions about putting 4 apartment buildings, each with 36 units in a neighborhood that otherwise only has single family homes. (A very low percentage of the development will be single family homes, the rest will be a combination of town homes, condos and the aforementioned apartments). There are even more questions regarding where all that traffic will go. To put it another way, does the neighborhood even have the infastructure to cope with going from a low density to a high density environment?
There are no answers to these questions in this blog post. We will have to wait and see how this plays out. This is not the end of the story. In fact it's just the beginning...
For Coralville Residents interested in sitting in on the Council Meetings, the Coralville City Council meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at 6.30pm. (Details in the link). And if you get a 2 liner with notice of possible changes in your neighborhood, I definitely recommend sitting in. I am a much smarter cookie today than I was yesterday!
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