Some “big ideas” and “priorities” for Marshalltown were thrown around on Tuesday night inside the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Roughly 60 people gathered for the Reimagine Marshalltown Community Roundtable hosted by RDG Planning & Design. The purpose of the meeting was to work on the city’s comprehensive plan, a long-range, strategic plan which outlines a community’s vision for growth, development and quality of life.

Representing RDG was urban planner Charlie Cowell, who said he appreciated the number of people who showed up to the first meeting.

“This is a great turnout for this event,” he said.

During Cowell’s presentation, he said creating the comprehensive plan was in the very beginning stages. The city already has one, so RDG is working on an updated plan, which he estimated will take 12 months to complete.

“We don’t know what this final product will look like,” Cowell said. “We have an idea of an outline, but we don’t know what’s going to be in it. We’re really relying on your help to understand what the priorities are of the community, what you want to see happen in the next five, 10, 15, 20 years in Marshalltown.”

Last night’s roundtable served as a kickoff for the project, he said. To ensure they get a better idea, RDG staff will go out into the community to speak with people. For example, Cowell said they will go to JBS and organizations they will make presentations to.

“If you have an organization you’re involved in, or a group – a senior citizen group or another club or informal organization or your employer . . . let us know and we will accommodate,” he said.

RDG will spend most of the rest of 2025 gathering information about Marshalltown and doing an analysis of what is already here. Cowell added that they want to focus on growth areas such as transportation improvements, new roads and bike trails.

“That will start to take place in January, and there will be an event and you all will be invited to that,” he said. “You can come see and give input on things we’re working on.”

A draft of the future land use and transportation plan will come together in early 2026, which are two major components. Cowell asked where people want to plan for future land uses and growth and which areas of the city should get redeveloped.

Other parts of the plan RDG will focus on include environment, economic development, infrastructure and community facilities, arts and culture and housing and neighborhoods.

Cowell said the plan will include a more detailed look at housing.

“It will include a detailed housing market analysis, looking at what is needed in the future from price points, housing tide, occupancy and providing strategies on how to get there to meet those needs,” he said. “That will be a much more detailed component.”

The plan will also look at certain areas of town that might have had planning efforts in the past. The listed areas included downtown, the JBS campus, Merle Hibbs Boulevard, Meadow Lane Mall and the Third Avenue corridor.

“We’re going to look at those areas and confirm whether those plans are still relevant, make updates where necessary and do new focus on these areas,” Cowell said.

In the late spring or early summer of 2026 is when he said the city will see a draft plan, and focus on implementation. At that time, a larger engagement component will be hosted to unveil the plan, he said.

After the short presentation, Cowell asked attendees to split into groups to come up with ideas and priorities, and give them to him.

Ideas ranged from infrastructure to establishing identities for neighborhoods to utilizing the Iowa Veterans Home more often. People also wrote ideas on sticky notes, and fixing the city streets was written more than once.

Cowell asked for some out of the box ideas and was told Marshalltown should get a Dambo Troll, a giant sculpture by artist Thomas Dambo, made from recycled wood which would attract a lot of tourists. Aimee Deimerly-Snyder had a suggestion regarding the railroads.

“This is not an endorsement of the idea, although it’s something I’ve never heard before – relocating the railroad south of town,” she said, which drew laughter.

“That is not the first time we have heard that,” Cowell replied.

One resident said economic development with reasonable incentives should increase to attract businesses offering good paying jobs, which would increase the tax base. Suggestions on education included making school events more community oriented, getting parents involved and creating smaller class sizes.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext/ 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.