Commission to discuss rezoning site to allow homeless shelter on Des Moines’ east side
KATHY A. BOLTEN Feb 6, 2020 | 3:21 pm
2 min read time
366 wordsAll Latest News, Government Policy and Law, Real Estate and DevelopmentDes Moines’ city staff is recommending the Plan and Zoning Commission approve a request to rezone land in the northeast part of the city to allow a shelter for homeless women and children to open on the site.
The request to rezone 5.49 acres at 3800 E. Douglas Ave. has met with opposition from some area residents who have raised concerns that a center would lower the neighborhood’s property values. Some have also raised questions about whether, in the future, homeless men and teenage boys would be allowed at the center.
The Plan and Zoning Commission had been scheduled to hold a public hearing in January. The hearing was postponed until today.
The request to rezone 5.49 acres at 3800 E. Douglas Ave. has met with opposition from some area residents who have raised concerns that a center would lower the neighborhood’s property values. Some have also raised questions about whether, in the future, homeless men and teenage boys would be allowed at the center.
The Plan and Zoning Commission had been scheduled to hold a public hearing in January. The hearing was postponed until today.
Hope Ministries has an agreement to buy the property where a former elementary school had been located. The property is now owned by a church.
Hope Ministries wants to raze the original Douglas Elementary School and build a two-story, 16,000-square-foot addition to the remaining portion of the school.
The center would include 100 beds for homeless women and children involved in the nonprofit group’s short- and long-term support programs, city documents show. It would also include a chapel, dining hall, kitchen, daycare, training classrooms and administrative offices.
A revised plan submitted to the city includes a statement that “all beds are for women and children and there are to be no beds for homeless men.”
Hope’s current facility for women and children can only serve about 35 people at a time. However, the group gets more than 100 calls a month from women who need a safe place to stay, a spokesperson has said.
City staff, in its report to the commission, is recommending approval of a request to change the land use designation of the site in the city’s comprehensive plan from public/semi-public to medium density residential.The staff is also recommending approval of a request to rezone the parcel to Planned Unit Development from single-family residential.
The commission meets at 6 p.m. today in the boardroom at the Richard A. Clark Municipal Service Center, 1551 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
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