McGregor Council discusses riverfront zoning matters
By Audrey Posten, Times Register
The city of McGregor is taking steps to create a new W-3 waterfront - manufactured homes zoning district. The move, which comes at the recommendation of the city’s planning and zoning commission, is in reference to the four park model trailer homes at the north end of the Boatels property along the riverfront.
“[The owners] are trying to purchase the property and would like to be able to, if they need to at some point, replace the trailers. Currently, they’re non-conforming,” city administrator Lynette McManus told the council at its Dec. 16 meeting.
Amending the zoning ordinance would permit the use seen in that spot now and allow for property improvements, added the city’s attorney, Mike Schuster.
“That property, as a single lot, would be under common ownership, and each of the manufactured buildings or homes would be under separate ownerships, much like the units in a condominium building are,” he explained.
The proposed ordinance would create a district unique to this use, while also permitting any of the uses in McGregor’s W-2 waterfront mixed use zoning, according to Schuster.
After receiving council consensus, he will now make some adjustments to the draft presented at the meeting and bring the ordinance for official consideration next month.
This wasn’t the only riverfront zoning matter discussed at last week’s meeting. McManus said Trilogy Partners, LLC, the group who owns the former Holiday Shores Motel property, has an investor who’s interested in constructing condominiums at the location.
“He was just kind of feeling out the community, to see if there’s interest in it now,” she stated. “It would have to be re-zoned.”
The issue has come up before. In January 2016, the McGregor Council voted unanimously to deny a request by Trilogy Partners to re-zone the property from W1 - waterfront commercial to W2 - waterfront mixed use, in order to build condos on the riverfront. Instead, Trilogy was encouraged to develop a mixed use plan for the location, to include condominiums and short-term lodging. Since then, nothing has been done with the property.
Although no plans have been officially presented, mayor Lyle Troester said the current planning and zoning commission has, so far, been receptive to the condo idea. At last week’s meeting, the council also seemed receptive, with members only noting that they’d like to see a height limit on the structure and some of the condos potentially turned into vacation rental units.
“It would have to be written into the condo association as an allowed use,” McManus said, adding that, “I don’t think there will be any hotel.”
There’s no indication yet of the number of condos that could be included.
“They’re not going to design anything until they feel they have a shot, at least. They don’t want to spend a bunch of money and get turned down again,” McManus said.
Railroad crossing upgrades proposed
Discussions are underway to update the railroad crossing from Main Street to the McGregor riverfront, by the boat ramp. Troester said city officials recently met with the Iowa Department of Transportation about the potential project.
“The proposal down there was to improve that whole crossing area and move it northward so the turn into the boat ramp would be better and easier. Now, when you’re turning from the north with a boat, sometimes you turn too short and your boat goes over the tracks instead of the crossing,” he said. “They could also put a crossing arm on the Main Street side of the tracks.”
A wall between the railroad tracks and the northern part of the driveway was also suggested, along with making more of a sidewalk access from Kwik Star across the tracks and to the entrance of the Riverfront Park sidewalk.
McManus said the DOT will approach the railroad with its ideas.
“These guys said they’ve watched that crossing and wanted to do something with it,” she remarked.
The project came about because the city is receiving DOT money for the upcoming Main Street sewer project, which will also include a complete street reconstruction.
“They have to look at these that are abutting the project. They wouldn’t want something unsafe on this brand new piece of road,” McManus said.
Although related, the crossing upgrade will not be part of the Main Street project. It will require a separate engineering agreement and its own funding sources, she noted. Work would likely not take place next year, but in 2022.
“It would really cap off the end of the street,” Troester said.
Plans to change speed limit on hold
McGregor’s hopes to decrease the speed limit from the west city limits to the school have been put on hold. McManus said the DOT wants to first do a speed study on the stretch, which currently goes from 55 mph to 45 mph entering the city limits by Great River Care Center, then down to 35 and eventually 25 before the middle school. The city feels that is too fast, considering the proximity to the care center, Turner Park, the Valley View Apartments, school and other homes.
“We had tried to set it 25 up to the curb by Turner Street, and then 35, and that was called arbitrary,” McManus said.
“I thought we could do it because it’s in city limits,” Troester said. “They are just so stubborn not to change that and lower the speed limit. It’s the residents there, and the safety for the park. It’s just a bad area.”
