T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY RDG Planning and Design Urban Planner Charlie Cowell, center, addresses the Marshalltown city council about the comprehensive plan update during Monday night’s regular meeting.

As leaders prepare to update the city of Marshalltown’s comprehensive plan, the urban planner leading that effort, Charlie Cowell from RDG Planning and Design in Des Moines, introduced himself to the city council during Monday night’s meeting and provided a basic presentation on what can be expected in the months to come.

Cowell explained that in addition to the comprehensive plan, a detailed housing study will be completed, and he made note of his colleagues who will work with him on the plan and members of the steering committee from within the Marshalltown community.

“Hopefully you know what a comprehensive plan is. You have one. It gets used, and so this will be a full update of that comprehensive plan,” Cowell said. “We’ll be taking a look at all of the parts of that plan to understand what might still be relevant, but we do understand (that) there’s significant changes we’ll be making to that as well. So it is a big picture policy document for the city to help inform things like the zoning case you heard tonight (regarding the proposed northside McDonald’s).”

The supplemental housing study, he added, will look at market demand for the future, market forecasts, where housing policy should be focused, possible zoning changes to meet housing needs and strategies to achieve those goals. At the present time, Cowell said the entire process is in its early phases with a public event and input session scheduled for Tuesday night at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum beginning at 5 p.m. with a presentation at 5:30.

“You can see as we move along, a lot of meetings with our committee and touchpoints with the community as we move through the schedule, and it really starts with ‘Where are we at today? Where do we want to go, and how do we get there?'” he asked.

The effort is being branded as “Reimagine Marshalltown” and has a dedicated website, reimaginemarshalltown.com.

“I can’t say I know what the final product is going to look like because we’re starting, hearing from people, trying to understand what priorities are and then the document of the plan forms after that,” Cowell said.

After the initial public event and conversations, he said the focus will shift to polling and more detailed housing surveys later in the fall, a housing survey in January focused on drawing out ideas for future land use and transportation and then moving to the implementation phase in the spring and summer months. Cowell plans to touch base with the council and the Planning and Zoning Commission throughout the process.

He also hopes to identify certain sub areas to explore more detailed connections and building needs — one of which includes concept drawings of the old downtown hospital facility, which is set to go up for sheriff’s sale on Nov. 4.

As he wrapped up his initial presentation, Cowell stressed that he’s “just getting started,” and there will be plenty of opportunities for the public to get involved even after Tuesday’s listening sessions and public event.

“We could use help getting the word out. We’re doing our best right now trying to get the word out. We’ll continue to do that throughout the fall,” he said.

With the floor open to council questions, Councilor Gary Thompson asked about ways to get involved beyond the public event, and Cowell directed the public to the Reimagine Marshalltown website to submit feedback, input and suggestions on which civic groups should be involved in the plan update. Councilor Melisa Fonseca wondered if the housing study would lead to more construction, but Cowell said his firm simply develops a needs study, not actual plans.

During the public comment period, Jim Shaw asked if city streets would be included in the update, and Cowell said it would cover mobility, street connections, trails and sidewalk improvements on a citywide level as well as parks, open spaces, neighborhoods, housing, infrastructure and facilities and “intangible” things like arts and culture and diversity.

At-Large council candidate Tim Bradbury said that while the plan update sounded good, he wondered who was financing it and if it was being used by the Chamber or another “special group” to “push their agenda.” City Administrator Carol Webb replied that the city itself is paying for the study through Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) dollars, but the Chamber and other local organizations are represented on the steering committee.

Leigh Bauder praised the website and encouraged the council to “really truly use” the comprehensive plan as opposed to letting it collect dust like some of the past ones have.

In other business, the council:

• Approved the consent agenda as listed.

• Approved the second reading of the amendment to the official zoning map for 212 E. State St. from Urban Core Zoning to Mixed Use for the proposed new McDonald’s by a 6-1 vote with Fonseca opposed. A motion from Thompson to waive the third reading did not pass as it received five affirmative votes but required at least a 75 percent supermajority, with Fonseca and Jeff Schneider voting no.

Unanimously approved the second reading of an ordinance amendment establishing attendance requirements for the Planning and Zoning Commission, Board of Adjustment and Electrical Appeal Board.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.