Developer selected for Peninsula community

After a search of a year and a half,Iowa City has selected a development team for the Peninsula neighborhood. The purchase price for the 70-acre site, of which only about 40 acres is developable, is approximately $1.3 million. The neighborhood, which is expected to be under construction in 2001, will serve as a model for smart growth in the college town of 65,000, according to Robert Miklo, senior planner in Iowa City. The developer, Peninsula Partners, includes Terry Stamper, Peter Katz, Geoffrey Ferrell, Barry Kemper, and Jim Tischler. Stamper, a Michigan developer who will oversee the project, and Tischler previously worked together on a traditional neighborhood development in Monroe, Michigan. Katz is author of The New Urbanism and former executive director of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Ferrell is a longtime new urbanist planner. Kemper is a builder based in Detroit. The Peninsula plan, by Dover Kohl & Partners, calls for five units to the acre calculated over the entire site, although only about 40 acres are buildable. A wide range of housing types, a small amount of commercial, and civic buildings are included. The project was initiated by Iowa City, which acquired 200-plus acres of undeveloped land surrounded on three sides by the Iowa River. Most of the Peninsula is unbuildable lowland which the city acquired for flood control and as a groundwater source. But the parcel also includes some prime developable land. Because the city is experiencing significant problems with sprawl, officials looked at the parcel as an opportunity to initiate a model neighborhood. The city hired Dover Kohl, an experienced new urbanist design firm based om South Miami, Florida, to create the vision for the neighborhood. Beginning in 1998, the city initiated a nationwide search for a developer committed to smart growth/new urbanist principles. The planning process included a study by Zimmerman/Volk Associates, which quantified the potential market for this neighborhood. Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa, which includes a major medical center and is the city’s largest employer. The city also is becoming popular as a retirement destination, according to Stamper.