City Council discusses Forest View redevelopment
Hunter
4/24/19
The Iowa City City Council spent part of their meeting Tuesday night discussing the proposed redevelopment of the Forest View Trailer Park area.
Ann Russet with the City discussed a memo that she and City Manager Geoff Fruin submitted to the Council detailing some of the differences that will be seen by residents of the current trailer park. She said that the streets in the new development will be publicly, rather than privately owned. In addition, Russet said the mobile homes will be taxed as property, not as vehicles as they have before, as the tenants will be paying for the land as well as the structures.
Despite recommendations from councilor Rockne Cole, Mayor Jim Throgmorton said that once a Commercial Zoning Agreement has been reached between the developer and the city, he would not go from the first reading on the ordinance to collapsing of the second and third reading, calling the development too important to rush through.
Councilor Susan Mims says the new provisions for the current residents of Forest View are much different than just trading one trailer park with another. The new development gives renters an avenue towards ownership, and part of their rent will be held to be used as a down payment. That also allows tenants wishing to buy to take out a conventional mortgage instead of a regular loan.
The council agreed to continue the public hearing and defer the first consideration to their scheduled meeting on May 7th.