Flood Protection Slams Into Preservation Of History And Scenery In Dubuque Street Elevation Project

Pictured above, Scott McDonough and Steve Tannen, residents of Bella Vista Place in Iowa City, use an extended measuring stick to demonstrate how high Dubuque Street could be elevated - 15 feet in parts - in a flood protection project that is being considered.

City leaders, residents and volunteers are grappling over historic properties and a scenic city gateway versus a need to elevate a critical connector street that floods out for weeks at a time.

Residents along Bella Vista Place, Dubuque Street and others are fighting for their homes, while the city needs support for a blockbuster $40 million flood mitigation project to elevate Dubuque Street and Park Road Bridge by as much as 15 feet in some places. 

The debate has landed at the feet of the Historic Preservation Commission - a commission that typically decides how far a front porch can stick out or if certain siding is historically appropriate.

Nearly a year ago, the commission endorsed the Dubuque Street project as is saying there is no significant impact on historic properties. They did so in a letter to the Iowa Department of Transportation and Iowa Historic Preservation Office, which all need to bless the project before Iowa City can move forward.

On Thursday night, McDonough, Tannen, Jennifer Wagner and Joe Coulter and others urged the commission to rescind the letter, saying the flood protection measures are excessive, would cause harm to historic properties and they felt it had been kept under the radar without a chance for them to weigh in.

The residents fear if the commission doesn't put the brakes on the project it will move forward from government agency to agency and they would lose any influence they may have had.

After a marathon meeting on Thursday, the commission decided to defer a decision for two weeks, which is a small victory for the residents, who are asking the commission to reexamine the negative impacts. Some commission members wanted to let the existing letter stand, others wanted to add a supplemental letter noting the concerns brought to light, while other seemed to favor rescinding their endorsement.

The commission is in an odd place. In the routine cases they typically deal with, the commission has a detailed plan from which to base a decision. If information is missing, they tell the property owner to go get it. In this case, one of the biggest to fall under their purview, it's a catch 22 where the federal process requires the city to get the commission's blessing before moving forward with a comprehensive design. 

City Engineer Ron Knoche said he is not sure what impact the decision to defer will have on the project, other than that it will cause a delay. Knoche said the commission had a full report that didn't understate the potential historical significance. 

Most in the community acknowledge Dubuque Street must be elevated. The road was closed for nearly two months in 2008, and about 20 days this year. The closure in 2008 closed access to neighborhoods off Foster Road, which otherwise was not underwater. When it is close it disrupts emergency services and routes traffic through residential areas not equipped to deal with it. 

"This is what happens to transportation networks and emergency routes and streets in Iowa City when Dubuque Street closes," Melissa Clow, a city project administrator, said pointing to a photo of snarled traffic on Thursday.