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In his mind’s eye, Waukee Mayor Bill Peard can see the future, and it stretches through several hundred acres of corn, crosses Interstate 80 and ties his boomtown to another, West Des Moines.

In an office lined with wall-sized aerial photographs and planning maps with colorful circles that put a ring around development dreams, Peard repeats a common theme: If the extension of Alice’s Road were complete today, some of those big commercial projects under construction or soon to be built in West Des Moines, such as Aviva USA’s headquarters and the recently announced Microsoft Corp. data center, could have landed in Waukee’s lap.

Waukee needs a burst of commercial growth to pay for the services required to support its growing population. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city grew 119 percent to 12,000 residents from 2000 to 2007, adding 1,100 residents in one year alone.

Since 2000, Waukee has annexed nearly 3,000 acres of land into the city.

Alice’s Road carries a burden of high expectations.

It links Waukee’s and Clive’s coal- mining past to Waukee’s data-center future.

The road itself is named after Alice Nizzi, who cooked up Italian cuisine at her Alice’s Spaghettiland. The restaurant was located just west of the Shuler Co. coal mines, where her Italian husband and relatives and other immigrants made a hard living from 1921 to 1949.

The Shuler mine was a big idea in and of itself. Its main shaft plunged 387 feet, and it produced 7 million tons of coal during its 28 years of operation. When it closed, it was the last deep-shaft coal mine in the state.

Alice Nizzi and her family even influenced Waukee’s northern border with Clive, fighting an annexation battle launched by developers to bring land into Clive, which at the time was positioned to bring water and sanitary sewer services to the area.

The case wound up before the Iowa Supreme Court, which ruled in 1999 against the Nizzis and their desire to stay in Waukee and in favor of Clive and the developers.

As Clive Community Development Director Doug Ollendike put it, his city won the battle but lost the expansion war. The case virtually locked the city inside its present borders and prevented its expansion to the west. The city is bordered by Urbandale to the north and Waukee to the south and west.

Clive and Waukee officials hope to revisit some annexation issues in order to create more orderly borders along Alice’s Road.

“Alice fought to keep it in Waukee,” said her niece, Mary Ladurini, who worked in the restaurant along with her mother and Alice’s sister, Anita, and other members of the Nizzi family. “When it went to Clive, she was so disappointed.”

The Nizzi family recently sold the ranch-style stone house that served as a home and restaurant. Steven Smith of Urbandale bought the property and said he has been contacted by an investor who is interested in opening a restaurant in the structure.

Out of the past, into the future

Drive south from the old restaurant, past housing developments and still more farm fields, and the Alice’s Road of Bill Peard’s dreams begins to take shape.

The Crossing at Alice’s Road, a 145-acre development at the intersection of Hickman and Alice’s roads, is expected to be a catalyst for economic development. West Bank and TEAM Des Moines Partners LLC recently announced plans to build there.

TEAM will build a Tier III data center at the location, a project that Peard believes will trigger more job growth. And West Bank, he believes, will spur commercial development.

And though it has yet to announce plans for a new store, Hy-Vee Inc. also owns property at the intersection.

Continue south from Hickman Road to University Avenue and Waukee’s dreams for commercial development along Alice’s Road begin to come true. Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Co. has a facility at the southeast corner of the intersection. And 80 acres directly across Alice’s Road have been the target of on-again-off-again development plans.

MidAmerica Energy Co. is located farther south and was one of the first Waukee businesses to buy into the recently formed Waukee Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit group that will promote commercial development. Gilcrest/Jewett Lumber Co. Inc. anchors the northwest corner of Alice’s Road and University Avenue.

Peard is so confident about the city’s potential for commercial growth that he can spin a positive from the negative of a bank foreclosure on a large parcel of land at the northeast corner of that intersection.

“I think this will all take care of itself,” Peard said.

With the Alice’s Road extension geared to kick in next year just across the street from the stalled development project, all things are possible.

Putting up the money

Waukee city officials have decided to put a couple of capital improvement projects on hold in order to pay the city’s half of the $18 million total budget to extend Alice’s Road south from University Avenue beyond Interstate 80, where it will hook up with 105th Street in West Des Moines.

Waukee and West Des Moines have inked an intergovernmental agreement to share costs on the project, which includes a bridge over Interstate 80 and, again in the future, a possible interchange on Interstate 80.

For Waukee, that means laying down six lanes of pavement and landscaped boulevards a distance of a little more than two miles through what is now primarily farm fields.

The route will cut through the Waukee Futures Corridor, which planners envision as an area that will attract businesses that rise to the “benchmark within their sectors or industry.”

“This corridor is going to be a guaranteed return on our investment,” Peard said.

He envisions large-scale office parks, convention centers and other commercial projects, along with some residential development. And he sees the Alice’s Road expansion as a boon to the entire region, including West Des Moines, Urbandale and Clive.

Others agree. In addition to the pact with West Des Moines on the roadwork, the two cities have reached an agreement for the extension of sanitary sewer services to replace aging facilities in Waukee that would be overwhelmed by more growth.

“Without that, none of this would be possible,” Peard said.

Shared enthusiasm

There is little doubt that Peard takes great pride in the Waukee community. He says it is in the unique position of being able to carefully plan its future.

“We can be a model city based on community input,” he said. “We probably can put together the best planned community just based on our growth.

“That opportunity doesn’t happen very often.”

But his enthusiasm for growth in eastern Dallas County, even extending south into Madison County, is shared by West Des Moines city officials.

The Alice’s Road extension “really opens up a pretty significant opportunity for both cities,” said Clyde Evans, West Des Moines’ community and economic development director.

However, the present wrinkle in extending the road and building the bridge is the eventual construction of an Interstate 80 interchange that would ease traffic flow.

Kevin Arp, senior transportation engineer for Kirkham Michael Inc., said the bridge and roadway segment is being laid out to eventually fit within the “footprint” of the planned interchange. There are no exact plans for the interchange at this time as the cities are waiting for federal authorities to approve a connection to the interstate.

That approval is based on a study of anticipated traffic levels and is key to securing federal funding to help finance the project, Arp said.

“Traffic modeling continues to be an issue throughout the process,” Arp said.

Beyond the interchange, beyond West Des Moines, Alice’s Road eventually will push into Madison County, making a connection that has been sought by developers, all with their own dreams of growth.