SOLON — The City Council unanimously approved a request by Raymon Greazel/The Watts Group to annex-in an approximately 40-acre parcel of land during their regular meeting Wednesday, Feb. 7. The parcel is located between Iowa Highway 1 (on the east) and Crestview Drive in the Old Mill Creek subdivision on the west and is along old Iowa Street.
A public hearing was held prior to the Council’s vote.
“This came before Council in May as a concept,” said City Administrator Cami Rasmussen while opening the public hearing with some background. “The reason was because this is not your typical annexation where you go right to the next parcel, there are actually two parcels in-between (the south edge and properties on the north side of West Elm St.). However, it does connect (to the city limits) and is contiguous to Solon on the west side (abutting properties on the east side of Serenity Ct. and Crestview Drive).” Rasmussen called it a “clean annexation” as well as noting it was voluntary. The question, she said was if the Council would support a non-traditional annexation.
“There wasn’t a lot of interest to develop the site at the time,” said Rasmussen, and now the plan is just to get it annexed.” The Council gave basic approval sending the request to Planning and Zoning (P&Z) in July. She noted when there is a request for annexation, zoning necessarily accompanies it. “The zoning that was presented was a variety,” she said including single family residential, multi-family residential, and multi-family residential with some commercial. The Council had expressed a desire for “predominately single-family homes with commercial development along Hwy. 1,” she said. At the time however, the Watts Group did not have any firm plans for the site, which led to a hesitation on the part of P&Z due to the uncertainty of the commercial development. P&Z did approve annexation of the parcel as “R-1,” or single-family residential development.
Rasmussen also stated notification had to be given to Johnson County in the form of a preliminary notice as well as a formal notice. The County, she said, had expressed no concerns with the preliminary notice but did express concerns with the former Iowa St. upon receiving the formal notice. She explained that when a city annexes land, half of an adjoining street has to be annexed as well but was not indicated on the concept illustration. City staff worked with the County Engineer, County Auditor’s Office, and the County Attorney to rectify the situation. “They wanted that to be clean and clear, and they wanted that half of the old Iowa St. to be included,” Rasmussen said. The County also had some concerns over Iowa St.’s previous role as an original territorial road, she said, which invoked additional rules. “However, they cleaned that up and we provided an opinion to us via the Assistant County Attorney, and then we were able to move this forward.” She noted this discussion took place between July and February resulting in the delay. She also reminded the Council the annexation request was for R-1, but Council’s desire is for commercial development along the highway.
To address that City Attorney Kevin Olson drafted a conditional zoning agreement stating while the city will allow the annexation with an R-1 zoning, the city wants the site to conform with the Future Land Use Map, which shows commercial development as well.
Opponents have their say
Traffic concerns dominated the comments opposing the annexation and were centered largely on the intersection of Iowa St. and Hwy. 1 at the northeast corner of the site due to the curvature of the road, traffic volume, and speed. City Engineer Dave Schechinger stated the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) would ultimately approve any entrance into the development from Hwy. 1 including the possibility of turn lanes. The cost of any traffic studies and such lanes would be paid for by Watts and not the city. A second entranceway to the development would likely be off of Viking Dr. in the Old Mill Creek subdivision, which was built as a stub presumably in anticipation of future development. This prompted concerns over additional traffic in the residential neighborhood.
During the public comments portion at the start of the council meeting local activist Antonia Russo expressed her ongoing concerns over continued development in and around Solon, and the potential for dire impacts to the aquifer Solon relies upon for drinking water. Russo urged the Council to consider sustainability when considering any further developments.
Three votes
The Council voted 5-0 to approve the conditional zoning agreement to bring the parcel into city limits, 5-0 to pass Resolution No. 24-05 to formally approve the annexation, and 5-0 to approve Ordinance No. 482 (first reading), which sets the zoning classification for the parcel.