Tim Vick likens community planning to building a house, but on a larger scale.

Instead of designing rooms and walls, planners map out entire communities, organizing them by residential areas, commercial districts and industrial zones. Streets, schools and parks and recreation areas are added to the mix.

“It’s taking a holistic look at community planning,” said Vick, who in January became city administrator in Adel, the county seat of Dallas County. Vick previously was city manager of Manchester, a northeast Iowa community that he led between 2005 and 2026.

Vick, 55, will have plenty of opportunities to use his community planning skills in Adel, whose population has more than doubled since 2010.

In 2020, the Adel City Council approved a comprehensive plan that was adopted after considerable public input. A survey that was part of the process indicated that more than half of respondents wanted to see more retail, especially restaurants, in Adel and believed that the city should plan and invest in the community’s growth and development.

The community survey also indicated respondents’ desire for more single-family and townhomes and senior-focused housing options. Forty-three percent, or 925 of Adel’s over 2,140 single-family houses were built before 1980. In 2019, the time of the survey, Adel had 44 townhomes, 70% of which were built after 2000.

Vick has first-hand experience with trying to attract developers to small towns.

“For a long time, like many rural communities, Manchester didn’t have any new homes built,” Vick said. “We didn’t issue any new housing permits for the three years after the 2008 housing crisis. We had to figure out ways to get people incentivized to build something.”

About five years ago, Vick said he suggested to Manchester Enterprises Inc. (a local nonprofit economic development group) that it purchase land for a residential development within the city. The group acquired 25 acres. After meeting with local developers, the group sold the land to the one that provided the best development plan, Vick said. Instead of tax abatement, the city created a development agreement that provided a 50% grant and 50% forgivable loan for the installation of streets, sewer and water. 

In another residential infill development project, the city of Manchester offered property tax rebates of 80% over 10 years for the development of condominiums on a 6-acre parcel.

The incentives prompted three new single-family housing developments in Manchester and a condominium development, Vick said. In 2020, Manchester’s population was 5,065, and trending downward. Today, it has an estimated population of 5,335.

It is that type of creative thinking that led to Adel’s city council hiring Vick as city administrator.

“We are confident [Vick] … will help guide our community through continued growth and opportunity,” James West, an Adel councilman who chaired the search committee, said in a news release.

We recently caught up with Vick and talked with him about his new role. 

This Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You accomplished a lot of things in Manchester, which is located in a beautiful part of Iowa. Why leave?

That is a great question and one I’ve thought about a lot. I was very comfortable and very happy in Manchester. Adel has some interesting challenges. It’s the county seat of Dallas County, but it’s not the largest town in the county. It’s seen rapid expansion, more residential than commercial and it doesn’t have much industrial. The demands and expectations are a little bit different. Industries don’t demand parks. Residential does. Commercial doesn’t care if you have park systems either. They want police and fire if there’s an emergency. Residential drives more use of the parks.

Seeing that growth potential in Adel and planning for that growth potential in the future really intrigued me.

Questions like ‘How do you interact with another community that is annexing close to you?’ or ‘How do you look at areas with natural boundaries that you’re going to have difficulty crossing?’ are really interesting.

Do you have a 100-day plan?

I came at the wrong time. It’s budget season and that is taking up most of my time right now. I’ve spent a lot of time in budget meetings. I have gone around town and introduced myself to people and I’ve been getting to know the people working on the city staff.

What are your top priorities?

Annexation. We want to get that process completed. We have our public hearing coming up [on April 14] to annex 1,200 acres to the south. The council also wants to see a capital improvement plan in place. They want to see how we’re going to move and improve things within the community and for future development. We’re issuing a $5 million bond for street improvement projects. The Rapids Street Reconstruction Project [reconstruction from Ninth Street to 15th Street] is a big portion of the bond, with a future street project on Grove Street outlined for next year. And, we have a development group that is buying 130 acres next to the new Adel DeSoto Minburn (ADM) High School that is under construction [west side of U.S. Highway 169 at 302nd Place]. They are looking at 40 acres of commercial and 90 acres of residential. And finally, we have some staffing needs that we need to evaluate as we continue to grow and expand.

What is your projection for Adel’s population growth?

It’s been estimated that Adel’s population now is at about 6,500. Realistically, I think we might get to 8,000 to 10,000 in the next eight years if all of the developments that have been talked about occur. We could have another 2008 [the Great Recession caused by the housing bubble burst and bank bailouts] or another pandemic, which changed how things operated. I’m cautious as I look forward. I like to see things moving forward and moving forward faster than I anticipate. I don’t want to get too far ahead of something because there are things that are outside of our control.

What comes first: Attracting more commercial and industrial development or attracting more people?

I look at community building as a three-legged stool: You’ve got your residential, commercial and industrial. It’s the residential that will spur the commercial; industrial needs to have the residential as well. The challenge is, what’s the industrial model you’re looking for? We’re not building wagon wheels anymore. It’s newer, computer-oriented models. Artificial intelligence. We still need widgets. We still need gadgets but are you seeing those developed elsewhere? So, I’m trying to figure out the best industrial model to bring in. The challenge we have is that we’re next to 700,000 people. Every city is competing for that same thing.

We are getting a new manufacturer [Offline Cocktails, which will make ready-to-drink canned cocktails and mocktails]. The business is one that you don’t necessarily think of when you think of manufacturing. But it’s those types of out-of-the-box-type of manufacturers we need to be thinking of attracting more of.

What will it take to move Adel from a good city to a great one?

I don’t have that answer yet. First, I need to know what’s really good about the town and I want to know what areas are great. I need to know where some of our weaknesses are that we can enhance and make better. There are a tremendous number of people who really care deeply about Adel. They are dedicated to enhancing the community and that’s what it will take to make Adel great

What do you like to do in your free time?

I like to golf and drive my Mustang convertible. Windshield time really is great for me. I enjoy traveling and visiting small towns and seeing what their pride is and checking out their restaurants and cafes. I don’t like to fly so our family vacations are driving somewhere. One year, we took a two-week vacation and drove to Utah and saw several of the national parks, then went to Las Vegas and then to Los Angeles where we saw the USS Iowa. On the way back, we stopped in Phoenix and saw the Grand Canyon. We spent – and spend – a lot of time in the car.

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At a glance

Lives: In Adel

Family: Wife, Melissa, and two adult children, Ashlee and Matthew.

Education: Bachelor’s degree (2005) and  master’s in public administration (2006) from Iowa State University.

Work background: City manager, Chariton (2002-05); city manager, Manchester (2005-26); city administrator, Adel (January 2026).

Other activities: Member and past president, Iowa City/County Management Association  

Contact: tvick@adeliowa.gov