The Ankeny City Council has given its approval to a plan to revitalize the South Ankeny Boulevard corridor from First Street to Oralabor Road, the next step in a process that began last fall as the city looks to redevelop the area that leaders say is still economically strong but beginning to look tired.

The last several months have included public input surveys and meetings to gauge interest in what they would like to see in the corridor while the city works with consulting firm Confluence to create a vision for the corridor’s future.

Derek Lord, director of economic development for the city, said the plan that was presented to the council on June 2 included 10 recommendations. They include:

• S.W. Ordnance Road Underpass Improvements, including construction of public art, a park and improvements along the High Trestle Trail, specifically at the underpass near the intersection of S.W. Ordnance Road and South Ankeny Boulevard.
• Enhanced landscaping including the development of a streetscape master plan.
• Commercial facade and site improvement program.
• Encourage new development near the High Trestle Trail, including retail and mixed-use.
• Preserve naturally occurring affordable housing and the creation of a financial incentive program, creation of a Tax Increment Finance Rebate program and a Community Development Block Grant funded housing rehabilitation program.
• Enhanced wayfinding and gateway signage.
• Roadway extension projects.
• Update future land use map and consider rezoning properties to be consistent with the new plan.
• Gateway mixed-use development.
• Streetscape improvements.

Lord said the plan provides an opportunity to revitalize the South Ankeny Boulevard corridor “not just for our community but for the region.”

“When we look at traffic counts, lease rates, occupancy rates, average dwell time, what we have learned is that while it may show signs of being tired, it is still very much a shopping destination that is doing very well,” he said.

The goal is to create a commercial district that will be sustainable and complement those vibrant shopping areas on Delaware Avenue and the District at Prairie Trail.

According to the plan, 551,800 people visited the corridor in 2024 for a total of 2.6 million visits.

The city has also learned that there remains a lot of undeveloped land and a lot of commercially zoned land in an area where there isn’t a lot of growth, Lord said.

“We learned we have an oversupply of commercially zoned land through this corridor and one of the primary recommendations is to open up that land for more mixed use or high density housing in certain areas of the corridor,” he said.

Lord said the city also learned through the public input process, which has more than 1,000 people participate, that it needs to address concerns about safety through the corridor.

“We learned that there needs to be some safety enhancements throughout the corridor, whether it’s as pedestrians or the motoring public traveling through the corridor to feel more safe,” he said. “We heard that loud and clear from the community.”

He said there are issues with gaps in the trail network and sidewalk systems that need to be addressed.

Next steps
Lord said the city will begin looking at trying to leverage both private and public investment to address some of the recommendations related to landscaping and streetscaping, and also begin to look at what policy changes might be needed to make the recommendations contained in the plan a reality.

That may mean a shift in how the city, which traditionally has dealt with new development, begins to look at efforts to revitalize the corridor, he said.

“Historically, Ankeny has not had to engage in redevelopment or revitalization because so much of our community is newer,” Lord said.

While much of the city’s commercial and multifamily growth has happened in previously undeveloped or greenfield areas, “in this case redevelopment takes a different approach,” he said.

“We have to look at it differently,” Lord said. “We have to do things differently. We have to get involved in ways we haven’t in the past. So this plan has really helped educate the community on how we can do things differently to influence outcomes in ways that benefit the entire community, and that’s different from how we have had to do things in the past.”