It’s being presented as a straightforward effort to improve water service to eastern Polk County and lower the rates, but opponents aren’t buying that. They see the county’s recently approved urban renewal plan as a step toward the kind of development that has produced dense population and intense commercial activity in western Polk and eastern Dallas counties.

“There are strong political and developer interests who want to be able to develop this land,” said Jonna Higgins-Freese, executive director of 1,000 Friends of Iowa. “That’s what’s driving these decisions.”

Not at all, say government officials. “They suspect we’ve got some big development project in mind,” said Polk County Chief of Staff Michael Freilinger, “but it would have to be outlined in this plan; this plan is specific to a water issue.”

After holding several public meetings over the past few months, the Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve the plan last week. Supervisors and representatives of the Des Moines Water Works have said urban renewal was a necessary procedure in a planned merger of the Water Works with the Southeast Polk Rural Water District.

That plan calls for the Water Works to acquire the smaller district’s assets and debt. It would then issue water revenue bonds in the amount of $7 million and retire that debt over 20 years through operating revenues. Polk County would issue urban renewal bonds in the amount of $5 million and retire the debt over 20 years through a countywide levy.

“Once the urban renewal district is created, it exists only until the plan is executed, then it goes away,” Freilinger said, and added that would occur as soon as the Des Moines Water Works has taken over the smaller organization’s assets, debt and operational duties.

Twelve towns and more than 1,000 parcels of property are included in the urban renewal plan, which stretches from Runnells on the southeast to Sheldahl on the northwest.

The proposed northeast bypass isn’t shown on any official public maps, but it also looms over the project in the minds of some landowners. If it’s built, connecting Interstate 80 near Altoona with the ever-expanding north side of Ankeny, it would pave over farmland and invite commercial and residential development.

The urban renewal plan approved last week states, “This Urban Renewal Plan has been developed to help local officials promote economic development in Polk County.” After describing the water-supply objectives, the document says, “The project will also significantly increase the overall development potential of the area and allow for new growth.”

That sort of language makes opponents nervous, but the supervisors told them that the goal is to promote orderly growth in an area that already is experiencing residential and business expansion.

“I get frustrated with the whole notion that this is intended to take away farmland and build subdivisions,” said Supervisor Tom Hockensmith, who represents the area on the county board. “Certainly developers have bought property there, and sewers are being run by Pleasant Hill. Development is going to take place anyhow, and the county should take the lead role in making sure it’s planned.

“I don’t see it being the same type of growth as West Des Moines. There’s a lot of interest in eastern Polk County about conservation communities and protecting the watershed, and we’re really interested in those things. There’s an opportunity to do something different here, and I think there’s a lot of interest in that.”

LaVon Griffieon, who farms north of Ankeny, said she worries that the area could be declared a tax increment financing district; tax money generated within a TIF district stays there rather than being funneled into a broader government account.

“TIFs take money away from school districts,” she said. “They’re going to be able to make lucrative deals to attract industry here. TIF started out as a good thing, but in the 1980s, they allowed economic development in. Now it’s a tax shift, and taxpayers have been paying the burden of things like Glen Oaks and Jordan Creek Town Center. The state has to reimburse schools for the money that goes into TIF districts.”

(According to a letter written by West Des Moines Mayor Eugene Meyer to state senators in 2003 supporting the TIF concept, his city used TIF funds for the construction of highway interchanges and streets in the area containing Glen Oaks and Jordan Creek.)

In this case, however, “the cities said, ‘We don’t want you TIFing out there,’ so we excluded TIF from the plan.” Freilinger said. “No TIF will ever be issued on this plan.”

Griffieon, who is a member of a committee working on the latest version of the Polk County Comprehensive Plan, also questioned why an urban renewal plan would be approved before the overall plan has been completed. The comprehensive plan isn’t expected to be finished until January.

“This initiative started long before work on the comprehensive plan did,” Hockensmith said. “This is something that, timing-wise, the county wanted to take a look at way back last December before the then-director of the Southeast Polk Rural Water District was going to retire.”

The law says . . .

Here’s some of what the Iowa Code has to say about urban renewal in Chapter 403:

* “. . . there exists in this state the continuing need for programs to alleviate and prevent conditions of unemployment and a shortage of housing; and that it is accordingly necessary to assist and retain local industries and commercial enterprises to strengthen and revitalize the economy . . .”

* “A municipality shall not condemn agricultural land included within an economic development area unless the owner of the agricultural land consents to condemnation or unless the agricultural land is to be acquired for industry as that term is defined in section 260E.2.”

* “An urban renewal plan may be modified at any time.”