City to compete for IEDA funds

Creston is competing with five other Iowa communities for a $1.75 million grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) and their comprehensive neighborhood revitalization planning program.

The revitalization plan includes five listed purposes: assess needs and conditions specifically with the Uptown project area; determine areas of projects of greatest opportunity and impact; prioritize activities; build community consensus; provide a roadmap for the city and its partners to move forward in implementation.

Creston City Council approved, pending draft changes, the uptown Creston revitalization plan put together by Laura Peters and Maya Struhar of RDG Planning and Design, which will be submitted to this program. After working on this plan through the year, Peters and Struhar reported on their findings and the content of the plan, which must be submitted by 5 p.m. Nov. 30.

Once submitted, IEDA will eliminate two of the six cities. The final four will work with IEDA until two cities are chosen for the program. Other communities competing include Corning and Sidney.

“We know that Creston is no stranger to the planning process,” Peters said. “I think as we were working through this, we saw a BOOST report was hot off the press, we went through the 300 pages of the comprehensive plan going back to 2019.”

Different focuses include housing and beautification, based on resident survey results. Between two surveys, Petes and Struhar got about 350 results. One was during Southwest Iowa Hot Air Balloon Days.

“In that, we specifically wanted to ask people, if you had $1 million, where would you spend it?” Peters said. “When we engaged with the 50 participants here, we heard a lot about housing. That came up in the focus groups as well. I think the one thing that everyone agreed on was the need for housing, cleaning up housing, construction for housing. There was no doubt about that.”

In the overall survey, the top three issues people listed were sidewalks, commercial buildings and beautification. While expressing all were important, Peters touched on concerns regarding the beautification aspect.

“I know there was some concern about murals and beautification, that that’s not a worthwhile investment,” Peters said. “From my experience, I cannot state enough that beatification is economic development. Your appearance matters. You’re telling others, you’re telling visitors, we have pride in our community. Come start your business in our community, come invest your business here.”

Peters said vacant lots are opportunities for a number of things, including housing, commercial business or parks. In fact, recommendations include two proposed parks: Adams Street Linear Park and Caboose Park.

According to the report, Caboose Park would “serve as a trailhead for the proposed Adams Street Linear Park, a park connecting Creston’s historic depot to McKinley Park along the south side of Adams Street.”

As RDG Planning and Design and the city of Creston go forward with this plan, Peters recommended leadership in the program communicate with residents and other city leaders.

“We heard in our focus groups, and that seemed to be a recurring theme in each of the plans as well, just pointing at who’s in charge, who’s leading the helm of these,” Peters said. “Anything to boost communication between city hall, the partners, residents, making sure that people know where to go to for information I think is going to be a win-win.”