.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Strip centers and commercial buildings line Merle Hay Road north of Interstate 35/80, drawing traffic that creates backups at stoplights. But traffic dissipates by the time a driver reaches Northwest 62nd Avenue, except for a few travelers making their way to residential developments nearby.

The section between Northwest 62nd and Northwest 66th avenues has gone largely unnoticed by developers, with its eclectic mix of rundown houses, vacant lots with for-sale signs and a few small businesses. However, that area is the city’s latest focus for future development and possibly the site for a town center Johnston has lacked, especially since development on 86th Street has pulled attention to the west.

Early this year, the city of Johnston and the Johnston Economic Development Corp. hired RDG Planning & Design to conduct an $80,000 study of this area and recommend a development plan, which could go before the City Council as early as this fall.

“They’re going to do some sketches of potential development that could occur on some pockets on Merle Hay and specific target areas,” said Gene Martens, Johnston’s community development director. “It’s helping the city come up with an economic development plan for Merle Hay that’s realistic.” The plan will include a detailed financing and implementation program.

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A steering committee composed of stakeholders in the project has met a few times, and RDG hosted a public input session in April. The next major meeting will be a charrette, an intense two-day planning conference, in May.

The study will contain a market analysis of all of Merle Hay Road with a specific focus on the area between Northwest 62nd and Northwest 66th. Martens said it will determine what kinds of businesses might be interested in locating in the corridor and what the city should be doing to lure those businesses.

One of the considerations is whether the intersection of Northwest 62nd and Merle Hay could become a town center with mixed-use development that would fit into the city’s comprehensive plan adopted in 1998. Martens said something like Prairie Trail in Ankeny or West Glen in West Des Moines is a strong possibility. “In fact, that’s what we kind of planned on all along,” he said. “The plan that we’re working on now may adjust our thoughts on what we had in the past, but I think that whatever happens, it is going to have to complement the city of Johnston.”

To make room for this kind of development, the city may relocate city hall to land it owns next to the library, which would also allow for a larger facilty now that it’s outgrown its building on the northeast corner of Northwest 62nd and Merle Hay.

The study is a result of many property owners in the area asking the city how much their land could be worth, Martens said, and what kind of development it wanted to see.

“A large number of property owners had property for sale and no one was acquiring them,” he said. “It became readily apparent that so many different ownerships of the property had kind of splintered the area and no one was interested in developing there because they didn’t want to go through the costs and time it takes to assemble properties.”

Though the study is an attempt to answer some of the questions property owners have asked, Martens is not offering a definite answer about what the city would like to see. Commercial development is an obvious choice for cities, he said, because “it pays the bulk of the property taxes.” But with less traffic going through the area, he said, the location may be more conducive to other uses, such as senior living complexes or townhomes. This section is part of a tax-increment-financing district, so commercial projects would bring property tax dollars back into the area.

Dennis Meyer, who has run Created in Johnston Inc. for 20 years, said as the owner of a small business, he would like to see Johnston support similar development around his stone statue and fountain store. If a national corporation or chain store came in, he said, it would take money out of Johnston, whereas his business’s profits have stayed in the city. He also worries that more development would increase his property taxes, which he claims are already too high.

Over the years, the community atmosphere around his store has changed as that section of Merle Hay Road has transformed from a two-lane road into four lanes. Now many property owners near him would like to sell their properties, he said, but expect developers to pay exorbitant amounts for land occupied by modest older homes.

“In some respects, they’re their own worst enemy by asking more than they really should for what they’re trying to do,” Meyer said.

However, he is pleased with the way the city is handling redevelopment in the area by asking the community for its input.

On the other hand, Greg Young, a real estate sales agent with Farmers National Co., became frustrated as he sought the city’s help in getting a development project going in the area. He has tried to sell a piece of property zoned for commercial development two lots north of city hall and at one point tried putting together a plan that would have combined a vacant lot next to him and the lot where city hall is located to develop a community center. But, he said, no one would move on it.

A center like this could attract mixed-use development by drawing more traffic to the area. However, Young claimed that 86th Street has been a “top priority” for the city and Johnston Economic Development Corp. rather than Merle Hay.

The study will look at how the city of Johnston could help landowners assemble their properties so that the area would be more attractive to developers, Martens said. One option would be to see if the city could acquire lots when they are for sale and resell them later to a developer as part of a larger parcel.

“There’s just a lot of policy questions and we’re anxious to see what ideas consultants can provide us,” he said. “We need to think out of the box a bit.”