.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;} If it is built, the northeast bypass will connect Interstate 80 near Altoona with the growing north side of Ankeny. Both advocates and opponents make the same prediction: that commercial and residential development will boom along the beltway. It’s just that the advocates see that as a plus and the opponents see it as a drawback.

Polk County Supervisor Tom Hockensmith said both sides should rest assured that the decision about building will not be made in haste. An environmental impact study conducted by Ankeny-based Snyder & Associates Inc. began last March. It will continue through December 2010, punctuated by occasional public hearings. The cost of the study is about $638,000.

“It’s really too early to know what public opinion’s consensus will be,” Hockensmith said. “A lot of the area where the proposed beltway might be located is working farmland. But I also think developers have already bought a lot of that land, possibly in anticipation of the beltway moving forward, and are currently leasing it to farmers.”

The exact route of the beltway through Ankeny has not been chosen. Snyder’s beltway project director, Jerry Searle, said the land his team is evaluating encompasses about 11 miles and several alternative routes. That figure does not include the secondary roads and other land parcels that will also be part of the study because the beltway would have an impact on them.

The last public hearing on the beltway was June 28. Searle said about 60 people showed up for that hearing.

“That’s a pretty good turnout for that type of meeting,” Searle said. “The main concern most people had was that a beltway might not be needed or it would encourage urban sprawl across prime farmland.”

However, he does not know whether residents will continue to express the same level of interest in future meetings.

“I think people have grown tired and bored with the beltway issue because they feel like the study is dragging on and on,” he added.

Not Stephanie Weisenbach. She’s the program coordinator for 1,000 Friends of Iowa, an environmental advocacy organization. She has given about 100 area residents a bus tour of the proposed beltway location.

She said she wishes there were more frequent updates for Polk County residents than the four public hearings in the next three years listed on the environmental impact study’s schedule.

“My organization opposes the beltway because we don’t believe it meets the transportation needs of the people in the area,” Weisenbach said. “A lot of elderly people in small rural towns live along that route. They want to use public transportation, not drive on a high-speed beltway.”

The 1,000 Friends organization is also concerned about the environmental impact the beltway would have.

“Some of the best farmland in Iowa is in the area where the beltway might be built,” she said. “There is a wetlands in the beltway path. Any time you pave over a wetland, you alter the way rain seeps into groundwater and create the danger of groundwater contamination from construction waste.”

Weisenbach would prefer to see a bus system, rather than a highway, linking the residents who live along the proposed beltway.

Her group contends that the beltway project would benefit developers rather than residents.

The next public hearing on the beltway is this November.

According to the study schedule, the next few months will be spent defining the area affected by the proposed beltway and weighing the pros and cons of building or not building.

After the November meeting, Searle and his team will begin defining budget and environmental constraints on the project.