Ankeny city officials knew for several months that the opportunity
existed to extend the popular High Trestle Trail but had to act quickly
last week when the price became right to acquire the land, Ankeny Mayor
Gary Lorenz said.
On Oct. 14 the City Council voted 3-2 to acquire
the abandoned Union Pacific railroad right-of-way south of West First
Street — near the location of the much anticipated Ankeny Market
Pavilion in Uptown Ankeny — to a point located just south of Interstate
Highway 80 in Polk County.
An application from Polk County for a
state Recreation Trails $750,000 grant and a commitment of $600,000 in
matching funds from the city are part of the $3,065,000 agreement with
the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and Polk County. Negotiations on
the agreement had started at around $12 million, Assistant City Manager
John Peterson said.
An official from the Iowa Natural Heritage
Foundation hoped the City Council would vote to approve an agreement a
week before they actually did, citing concerns that the railroad
right-of-way could default to adjacent property owners if action wasn’t
taken by year’s end. But the board decided to table the matter for a
week to give its members extra time to work through the plan’s details.
Uncertainty
still exists about what the city’s financial obligation will be if the
$750,000 grant application doesn’t come through.
“I guess you
would call this the state’s premier recreation trail,” Lorenz said. “I
think they are going to want to complete it.”
The 25-mile
recreational trail from Ankeny to Woodward opened in the spring of 2011
and includes a half-mile, 13-story bridge across the Des Moines River
valley.
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