FD plan gets key endorsement
SSMID members urge council to move on downtown conceptBy BILL SHEA, Messenger staff writer
A plan to reshape downtown Fort Dodge was endorsed Thursday by a panel that represents dozens of property owners who pay extra taxes to finance improvements in the city's center.
The Self Supported Municipal Improvement District board of directors voted to support the plan drafted by Camiros, a consulting firm from Chicago, Ill.
The centerpiece of that plan is a new central park that would cover several blocks of what is now Second Avenue South between Fourth and Seventh streets. It would also reroute traffic from Second Avenue South onto First Avenue South. The plan calls for making First Avenue South a two-way street downtown.
The plan would propel more traffic toward Central Avenue and reduce the size of downtown, according to Dennis Plautz, the city's director of business affairs and community growth.
District leaders see that plan as a path to new growth downtown.
Board member Jim Bird said the measure passed Thursday announces the group's support for the plan and urges the City Council to move ''sooner rather than later'' to implement it.
Bird said the Camiros proposal marks the first time since 1981 that a comprehensive plan for downtown has existed.
He added that downtown is a ''part of the city that should always show well.''
The Camiros plan was unveiled in January. The final version of it was accepted by the City Council last month. The council has taken no other action on it.
In addition to the central park, the plan calls for:
- Additional housing between the City Square and the Des Moines River;
- Turning the intersection of Central Avenue and 12th Street into a roundabout;
- Converting First Avenue North to two-way traffic;
- Writing new zoning laws and building design standards for downtown.
The $90,000 study was paid for by the city government, the Self Supported Municipal Improvement District and the Development Corporation of Greater Fort Dodge.
The district is a roughly 33-block downtown area in which land owners pay an additional property tax to finance improvements there. The development corporation is a private, nonprofit entity dedicated to improving downtown.
The consultants started their work in August 2007.
Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net
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Anderson
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11-22-08 7:47 PM
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Perhaps Ft Dodge can line up behind - a long way behind, I'd venture - all those big league cities looking for a federal handout. With the WPA coming back soon, that might be another opportunity since Ft Dodge let those built in the 1930's deteriorate so badly. Good luck!
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VTwinJim
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11-22-08 3:03 PM
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Again... I should have said..
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VTwinJim
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11-22-08 3:01 PM
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All I can say is this is way to Heavy for me. L.O.L. How pray tell is another park going to make up for lost taxes paid. And the Good Lord knows at the rate this tax and spend city is going it will self distruct. What goes thru these peoples heads. Now this would the time someone like Pladin will come in and tell us cave people that we don't have a clue. Yea Right!!!! Way to go Fort Dodge. You have certainly out shown yourself this time.
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SPORTSMAN
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11-22-08 2:44 PM
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Yep more parks, so the Sheriff Dept. can help the Police Dept. with all the crimes in Ft. Dodge! Don't get me wrong I'm behind the Police Dept. 100% but the others are just one big joke, including our Sheriffs department. But we the people voted these people in and if someone don't have the ***** to run against these people, or the citizens don't have enough ***** to do the right thing none of what we are saying will help. Please ftdodgenative RUN I'll vote for you! I keep asking my son to run for mayor, I hope he does! Except like I said before Ft.Dodge can't handle the change thats why they keep doing what they are doing and voting for these kinds of people!!!
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kaleidoscope
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11-22-08 11:18 AM
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fdn: You won't be alone in your fight. The "Field of Dreams" mentality some people in this city display is just plain wrong. They see nothing wrong with putting hard working business owners out of business and their employees out of jobs! The elitists care nothing about you or your home, only about what they want. Another park, indeed!
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Walter
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11-21-08 11:44 PM
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you NEED to move!
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firefly94
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11-21-08 9:50 PM
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So, just because some panel made up of people who, according to this reading, pay "extra" taxes to finance "improvements" in the city's center--I'm supposed to get all p i d d l e your p a n t s impressed & go for it hook, line & sinker??? Yeah for sure! Nobody pays "extra" taxes--Everyone pays according to the value of the property they own--Nothing "extra". But if by some strange quirk of the law they are really paying extra taxes then that would be nothing short of political h i n e y kissing. In Des Moines, right at holiday time, they are laying off 90 city employees because of a $$$ crunch--Some are losing their much needed health insurance as a result. The way FD wastes $$$,it could happen here too. Watch your back door, FD citizens!
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SPORTSMAN
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11-21-08 4:31 PM
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Kaleidoscope I think you are right, didn't they do this to Beekman Welding (and I hope he don't mind me using his name) but I remember an article where it said what they done to him and it wasn't very pretty.
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kaleidoscope
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11-21-08 3:45 PM
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It's always nice to know who those are that would agree to put a fellow businessperson out of business.
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SPORTSMAN
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11-21-08 10:44 AM
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So are you telling the citizens of Ft Dodge this is completely paid for?
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