The City of Cedar Falls is located in northeast Iowa, has an estimated population of 40,000, and is home to the University of Northern Iowa. The City is seeking to secure a vendor that will provide master planning services for properties owned by the City of Cedar Falls in the South Cedar Falls Urban Renewal Area located at the northeast and northwest corners of the intersection of U.S. Highway 20 and Hudson Road. The total area of the City-owned properties is 157.08 acres.

Since the early 1980’s, the City of Cedar Falls has fostered industrial and technology-related business development by acting as a master developer: acquiring land, master planning, platting and extending infrastructure. The City’s industrial park development has been very successful in attracting a wide variety of businesses, increasing employment opportunities in the community and building the City’s commercial and industrial tax base. To date the City has focused primarily on industrial uses and technology-related businesses by providing a variety of attractive locations and lot sizes. The subject properties are located at a major gateway into the community at a highly trafficked interchange with U.S. Highway 20, so the City is interested in assessing the market for commercial and professional office development in addition to industrial and technology businesses. This master planning effort should inform the mix of potential uses and the interface/transition between larger industrial users and potential commercial uses.

The objectives of the master planning project include:

1. creating a cohesive design plan that will create an attractive location for business growth, including ideas for site amenities, building and parking locations, general site landscaping trails and sidewalk connections and logical transition and interface between the uses in the development;
2. creating a master plan that can be used for marketing and stimulating private investment in new commercial, office, technology-related industrial development, and/or other land uses proposed in the plan;
3. assessing the needs and costs for the installation of adequate public infrastructure to serve the anticipated land uses in the project area;
4. providing a basis for subsequent rezoning and preliminary and final platting of the properties for development.

Detailed background, scope of work, and submittal requirements are available at: www.cedarfalls.com/southCFmasterplan.

Please contact Shane Graham, Planner II, at Shane.Graham@cedarfalls.com with any questions.