Condo and Main Street projects, rail crossing discussed at McGregor meeting

By Audrey Posten, Times-Register

At its Aug. 21 meeting, the McGregor City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance amendment that would allow Trilogy Partners, LLC, to adjust its plans for a condominium development on the McGregor riverfront.

Approval of the new proposal, which is to build two structures instead of one and reduce the number of condo units from 18 to a combined 14, was recommended by the McGregor Planning and Zoning Commission when it met last month.

At that time, contractor Steve McDonald said units will sit side by side, each 2,240 square feet and three stories tall, with a garage at ground level and living space on the upper floors. 

Private docks will accommodate unit owners’ boats and, per a 2021 agreement between Trilogy and the city of McGregor, a walkway and public pier will be incorporated into the project.

City council approval will allow McDonald to finalize and submit plans to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. He’s hopeful for the agency’s OK by this winter, so installation of infrastructure for both buildings can start this coming spring. Construction of the first building would follow, but McDonald said the second won’t go up until enough units have been pre-sold.

Despite agreement timelines that call for completion of building one in two years and the second in five, the council raised similar fears as the planning and zoning commission that the second building might not be constructed.

“My question is, what happens if you just build one building and never build the other one? It doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of teeth behind us getting that second building,” said council member Charlie Carroll. “I hate to get into scenarios, but this property has sat vacant now for nine years, since 2015.” 

According to city attorney Mike Schuster, per the revised agreement, the only penalty is that the property would revert back to its original zoning “and you start all over again.”

There are no financial penalties included in the agreement, but McDonald stated developers would “be at a financial loss” if the second building doesn’t come to fruition. 

“The rationale is that, once some are sold on the first building and they are visible, it’s easier to sell the second,” said mayor Lyle Troester. “I feel pretty confident on that issue. I know that was a big one with me. After discussing it with them, I feel much, much better.” 

The council will consider further readings of the amended ordinance at its next meeting.

Update on Main Street construction

Alex Jaromin, project engineer with Davy Engineering, provided an update on the Main Street Reconstruction Project, noting that phase 2A—Main Street from Third to Fifth streets—recently reopened, creating “some pretty big adjustments there in traffic control.”

Jaromin said paving for phase 2B—Main Street from Fifth to Seventh streets—will likely begin Sept. 5, then curb and sidewalk will follow. 

Weather permitting, the estimated completion date for the whole project is Oct. 11. However, according to city administrator Denise Schneider, the plan is to pave and re-open the intersection at Main and Seventh streets earlier, allowing for better access to and from Pikes Peak State Park.

With the recent change in traffic patterns due to detours, council member Carroll mentioned he and others have noticed navigation systems haven’t made the switch. Drivers are still being routed off Main Street and onto A and Ann streets. At the Ann and Fourth Street intersection, they are then being sent back onto Main Street, when they could have remained on that stretch all along.

“Is there any way we can push these changes we’ve made out there to the GPS companies, so GPS isn’t routing them these routes that aren’t correct any more?” Carroll asked Jaromin. 

Jaromin said the detours have been updated through Iowa 511, the Iowa DOT navigation system that lists closures throughout the state.

“I believe that’s tied to these navigation systems,” he said, acknowledging, though, that some problems persist. “That is an ongoing thing to contact these navigation systems to get that updated to alleviate some of the navigation through town.”

Deputy city clerk and economic development lead Brandi Crozier offered further clarification.

“It depends on what they’re using for a navigational device, too, and how frequently it updates. And depending on where you’re at when you put in your GPS coordinates, it gives you a different route,” she said. 

Rail crossing slope discussed

Mayor Troester said the city met with railroad officials Aug. 21, as part of ongoing discussions to improve the rail crossing at the riverfront after the tracks were raised during spring 2023 flooding.

Work was completed at the crossing last year, but left the slope to Riverfront Park, the boat launch, Big Buoys Tiki bar and the riverfront public parking lot dangerously steep. The grade also makes getting some trailers across the tracks impossible.

“We continued our discussion about the slope going across the railroad track and how steep it is, how we can level it out some and how we can make the access to the park a little more handicap friendly. There’s no real way to get a wheelchair to the park safely,” Troester said. 

The plan includes a fenced in walkway next to the railroad track that goes to the park, as well as addition of fill and concrete to improve the slope from the tracks.

Jaromin, who has also been part of these discussions, said, “by extending further south with asphalt, they are going to gradually make it a less steep slope from the south parking lot up over the tracks.” 

Although the railroad has provided a profile analysis that says this fix will work, Jaromin said a stipulation won’t let them off the hook until it’s tested in the field. 

The project will be on the council agenda in September, said Troester.

“If we approve this, they plan to have it done before winter,” he stated. “We’ve come a long way. A whole year of messing with that.”