A living complex for individuals over 55 years old with over 100 housing units and various amenities could be coming to the west side of Iowa City.
On Wednesday night, the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved rezoning the 31-acre plot of land to allow such a development to be built. This rezoning is expected to go before the Iowa City City Council on Jan. 7.
The Iowa City City Council will have the final say on if the rezoning will be allowed.
The property is located east of Camp Cardinal Road and north of Gathering Place Lane — near the St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. The property is currently empty.
According to meeting documents, the development would include condominiums, single-family residences, townhomes, assisted living and memory care cottages, and a community center.
Construction is estimated to take around five years to complete, meeting documents state. Some improvements are already underway, including land reshaping, also known as grading, and utility installation. Street paving is anticipated to occur later in the year, documents state.
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Single-family homes and duplexes will be built first, then three multi-family buildings and townhomes, documents state. Finally, the assisted living and memory care cottages will be built last. However, the construction of these amenities could begin sooner depending on demand for them, documents state.
Around one third of the 31-acre property would not have anything built on it to preserve the woodlands and slopes in the area, documents state.
The development was proposed by Western Home Independent Living Services, which is based out of Cedar Falls. The nonprofit organization has similar living communities throughout northeast and central Iowa, meeting documents state.
At the commission meeting, Commissions Chair Michael Hensch said this kind of facility is needed in Iowa City.
“Anything where we have an opportunity to provide memory care [and] assisted living to our older folks…in Iowa City, absolutely I am 100 percent in favor of that,” Hensch said.