Leaders want to ‘breathe life’ into south side

Parkersburg City Administrator Chris Luhring told Greenfield officials after their tornado that one takeaway from his town’s recovery from the 2008 tornado was that many residents ended up remembering more about how well the town rebuilt than the devastation itself.

Greenfield leaders are taking that lesson to heart. At last week’s city council meeting, the group held a public hearing to dispose of city-owned property and then approved an offer to purchase real estate that includes two small parcels on the south edge of South Side Park. A developer may build an apartment complex there. Council members also heard about ways the city might bring sweeping enhancements to the park over time.

Greenfield Community Development Director Stacie Eshelman said the initiatives are exciting because potential park improvements would enhance the quality of life for residents in that neighborhood, including those who rebuilt their homes after the tornado.

Background work

While working with the Iowa Economic Development Authority, Greenfield qualified for three emergency funding sources. One of the biggest concerns was outdated planning and zoning initiatives, including a comprehensive plan that had not been updated in more than two decades. That plan has since been updated and will soon be approved.

At the same time, Greenfield Chamber Main Street and Development worked with the Iowa Living Roadways Community Visioning Program to develop beautification concepts.

“I kept saying that was kind of the ‘softer side’ to the comprehensive plan,” Eshelman said of the Living Roadways program. It looked at parks, trails, etc., “but they also worked hand in hand.”

Common feedback from residents in both the comprehensive plan update and the visioning project showed a need to focus on parks and recreation as well as housing. Since then, the city council has revived the parks and recreation commission and appointed members to it.

The Greenfield Disaster Recovery team has also split into topical committees in the months following Greenfield’s 2024 tornado and has focused heavily on housing solutions.

Park improvement

At last week’s meeting, Brenda Dudley, executive director of Midwest Partnership Economic Development, presented information about Guthrie and Adair counties’ upcoming application to the Hometown Pride program through Keep Iowa Beautiful.

The program provides participating communities with five years technical support with a Hometown Pride coach. That individual works with local leaders and volunteers to complete projects addressing pressing community needs.

Since 2012, the program’s 118 participating towns have completed more than 2,200 improvement projects, raised more than $18 million and produced more than 260,000 volunteer hours valued at $7.5 million, according to the program’s website.

One potential byproduct of the Hometown Pride program could be improvements to South Side Park, located on the west side of South First Street. The Southern Iowa Council of Governments is often another major player in projects like these.

Several ideas have been discussed for the park, including trails, pickleball courts and other amenities. The park was last updated in October 2017 through a project made possible by the Greenfield Lions Club.

All of these ideas are still in their early stages, and a timeline for completion is unknown.

“We shaved off a small parcel of the larger parcel [on the south portion of the park]. South Side Park will remain, with lots of green space and the current playground. Community Visioning over the past year will bring more opportunities to the recreation offerings,” Eshelman said. “There are funding sources we plan to apply for and all of this will happen in project development phases over time.”

Answers for housing

A major challenge for the community on the housing front has been finding land. That roadblock comes as studies show that within the next 20 years, Greenfield will need more than 400 more housing units.

“The Greenfield Community Foundation has secured some lots and the city has opened up some potential development sites that they’ve received proposals on,” Eshelman said.

While homeownership remains a valued goal, rental properties have been identified as one of the biggest needs for more than a decade, but particularly since the tornado. That’s where the parcel of land on the edge of the park comes in.

Gratus Development presented a proposal last week to build a 24-unit apartment complex just south of South Side Park. The complex would include a mix of two- and three-bedroom units and came before the council because it is proposed on property the city owned.

Gratus’ Danielle Welsch said the desired timeline for opening the units would be 2028, though more will be known about the project’s viability this summer. The tax impact for the city would begin immediately on new properties like this one but would be phased in through the city’s tax abatement program.

A separate developer is also pursuing a senior housing project on the east side of town, roughly between Los Altos Mexican Restaurant and the Adair County Fairgrounds.

Neither of these projects are moving forward yet. Both are contingent on state funding becoming available. Eligibility depends on factors such as area residents’ income levels or the intended demographic served by the development.

Neither of the projects are subsidized, but will be market rate for low to moderate incomes. Eshelman said that the term “low or low to moderate income” is higher than most people realize and many of the town’s residents fall within these limits.

Developers applying to build in Greenfield are also receiving additional points on grant applications because the community experienced a disaster.

‘Breathing some life’

“We’re now at a point where we can breathe some life into these things that have surfaced from the planning we’ve done these last two years,” Eshelman said. “Development is a long game. People sometimes will get frustrated because it seems to take forever, but you have to do a lot of work analyzing your market and knowing your need before you can invest much into something. You want to know what is the best for our community. We do all the research and planning before we launch something.”

Mayor Brian Fox commended those involved during last week’s meeting for their work on finding solutions to the issues facing Greenfield.

“We’re finally showing the community that we’re really committed to finding this stuff that we’ve wanted to do forever. It seemed like stuff kept happening and the tornado really threw a monkey wrench in it,” Fox said. “Now we’re getting back on our feet and working toward making our town even better. I appreciate the work everybody’s done. It is a lot of work to find somebody who’s willing to do this and find out how to get it done. It takes a lot.”