Iowa City council OKs second reading rezoning former Kirkwood campus

The Iowa City council passed a second reading, 5-1, considering an ordinance that would rezone the former Kirkwood Community College Iowa City campus site to a general industrial zone. The ordinance would rezone approximately 6.8 acres of land located at 1810, 1816, and 1828 Lower Muscatine Road to accommodate Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) expansion goals for Oral-B Laboratories.

In February, P&G entered into an agreement with Kirkwood to buy the former campus for $6.4 million, with plans to demolish the existing buildings to make way for a new Oral-B facility. Currently, the land is zoned as neighborhood public, and the expansion has been a source of contention for neighborhoods that flank the campus, with concerns centering around air quality and building preservation. At the April 2 council meeting, several residents came forward to oppose the proposition of a rezoning ordinance.

“By rezoning as proposed, you are giving Oral-B and Procter and Gamble carte blanche to do what they want…manufacturing, more buildings, waste storage, truck movement, compressors, condensers, cooling towers, storage tanks.” said Laura Ruth, Iowa City resident who lives four blocks from the site of the future manufacturing facility. “This proposed rezoning is a terrible idea and it will be impossible to undo if it is allowed to proceed.” Council member Josh Moe sympathized with some public commentator’s calls to preserve the Kirkwood campus buildings, but said the council’s options are limited as far as mandating what a property owner can and cannot do with existing non-historic buildings. “I don’t know that that’s an option for us,” he said.

Council members disagree on predicted outcomes

Council member Andrew Dunn assured audience members that a task force to address air quality concerns surrounding the proposed facility will be addressed at a future work session, and pointed out that preexisting industrial facilities already exist in the immediate area. “No matter how you look at it, it’s the same every way around that property,” he said. The former Kirkwood campus is between an existing P&G facility and the MidAmerican Energy office. “It’s pre existing infrastructure…so fundamentally, I don’t see this changing the character of the neighborhood. I see it as in line with the recommendations by staff,” he said.

“Let us go back and see when that area was rezoned industrial,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Mazahir Salih, who added that she’s still concerned about air quality. “The neighborhood was not like that. It was a residential area there. Why increase the industrial in that area?” She echoed council member Moe’s opinion that the council is limited as to what they can mandate, but said they still have the power to vote “no” as far as adding more industrial facilities to the neighborhood. Council member Dunn said he “very strongly” disagreed with the sentiment that the council’s power is limited. “I think that that completely ignores the ability that we have to work as trustworthy community partners who are going towards a common goal in good relationships,” he said. “The city has leverage in our relations with businesses. We have capital that can be used to address common issues. We have this ability, as a council, to say ‘we would like to put your (P&G) tax dollars towards addressing this issue so that our residents don’t address this.’ You cannot tell me that we don’t have that power. And you can’t tell me that they’re going to turn down free money to fix that problem…we have a license to partner and solve problems.” Council member Laura Bergus was absent during the meeting, and mayor pro tem Salih was the sole negative vote. The third and final reading will occur at the council’s April 16 meeting.