Marshalltown residents came and went during an “open house” of the first of two Reimagine Marshalltown Design Charettes last night at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The event served as another step in developing a comprehensive plan — long-range, strategic, outlining the community’s vision for growth, development and quality of life.

Hosted by RDG Planning & Design, Planner Megan Schott said they like the open house concept in order to obtain and work with ideas residents have for the future of Marshalltown.

“It gives everyone time to come in and see some initial ideas tonight, and Thursday, the ideas will be a little more flushed out based on community feedback,” she said. “Then people can come back and give another round of feedback.”

Dorie Tammen attended because she loves Marshalltown and is happy to see the improvements made since the 2018 tornado. She is particularly interested in seeing the plans for the Marshalltown Mall, the old hospital and solutions for homelessness.

“I want to see improvements continue and I am curious about what the ideas are,” she said. “I’m excited to hear about what’s ahead for us.”

As residents gave ideas, RDG designers created sketches for corridors such as Iowa Avenue and sites such as the old hospital.

“They work and everyone can see them as they work and ask questions, provide input,” Schott said.

Designer Marty Shukert actively worked on sketches for the old hospital in downtown Marshalltown, drawing interest of those in attendance. Schott said they were familiar with the legal ongoings of the old hospital, but the plans RDG are working on are based on what the facility currently looks like.

“It’s discussions on what parts of the building can be saved, what parts need to be selectively demolished,” she said. “We are focused a lot on how the topography could be leveraged better for green space, storm water management and what are some of the land use needs of the community and how that can be integrated into the site. It’s just concepts and ideas tonight.”

Shukert said he had come up with “a lot of different” design ideas for the former hospital. One design he was focusing on with Marshalltown Mayor Mike Ladehoff and Housing and Community Development Assistant Director Clayton Ender assumes that most of the old building is demolished.

“The building that would be a really good one is the clinical building on the north side of the street, and my initial thought is it could be repurposed as a combination of workshop space, co-work offices, start-ups, almost like a business incubator, but with a broader reach,” he said. “It would be within that square footage, and that building is in good shape. You could do a lot of things, but that building, to my eye, is too good.”

One idea Shukert has for the site is constructing a new community venue with a kitchen. Giving the available space, he said it would not be gigantic, somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 square feet.

“People have said that’s a need in Marshalltown,” Shukert said. “It’s not a convention center, although it would have conference rooms in it, but a nice space and used for a variety of different purposes.”

On the property, he also included some smaller lots for single family homes and added the idea would save the original facade of the old hospital building. The lots would allow for “village or cottage-like” houses.

“It’s higher density but single family urban housing, and it’s not a product we really have here,” Shukert said.

Boards featuring different aspects of the comprehensive plan, such as housing, development and land use, were placed in the room, and attendees were free to use sticky notes and pens to add their own ideas. Schott said the boards were there to give information on the initial planning process, and contained emerging visions and goals residents gave at the October Reimagine Marshalltown Roundtable meeting.

“We welcome everyone to give feedback on the emerging ideas and goals – maybe we missed something,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to help shape those.”

Another Design Charette session will be held Thursday at noon, and some of the residents’ ideas may be fleshed out further. Schott added that the concepts will eventually be posted online for more feedback and to define the ideas.

“This is the halfway point where we start to think about those emerging goals and concepts,” she said.

Work on updating the city’s comprehensive plan began last year, and is estimated to take 12 months to complete. RDG will spent time gathering information about Marshalltown and doing an analysis of what is already here. They want to focus on growth areas such as transportation improvements, new roads and bike trails.

In addition to housing and development and land use, other components of the plan include environment, economic development, infrastructure and community facilities, arts and culture and neighborhoods. The plan will also look at certain areas of town that might have had planning efforts in the past, such as downtown, the JBS campus, Merle Hibbs Boulevard, Meadow Lane Mall and the Third Avenue corridor.

The first draft of the plan will be available in the late spring or early summer, and the city can then focus on implementation.

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