Discussions began last week  between a Des Moines planning  firm and Ankeny landowners over  the future of 1,100 acres of prime development land near Interstates 35/80.

Earlier this month, the city of Ankeny  hired RDG Planning & Design to create  a master plan for Crosswinds, a proposed  business park and residential  area located near the SE Corporate  Woods Drive interchange on Interstate  35.

“This is a project that doesn’t come  along every day,” said Justin Platts, an  urban designer for RDG. “There’s a  huge opportunity here because this  piece of ground is located at the confluence  of two of the busiest roadways in  North America.”

As part of the agreement, RDG will  develop a detailed master plan for 471  acres of land south of Southeast Corporate  Woods Drive intended to become  the Crosswinds Business Park. That land  is currently owned by eight private parties.  RDG will host a series of meetings  with landowners and city leaders over  the next several months during the  planning process.

Tim Moerman, Ankeny’s director of  economic development, said having  property owners directly involved with  the planning and design is part of a  strategy to add value to the land and  meet the city’s goals for smart development.  He said Ankeny leaders have a goal for Crosswinds to create more job  opportunities through its business  parks and generate additional tax revenues  for the city.

“When I started talking with the  property owners, one of the things that  we talked about was that planning adds  value to their land and joint planning  adds more value to their land,”  Moerman said. “The property owners  saw value in working together on a plan  to develop the area rather than working  on their own.”

The total cost for the master planning  contract with RDG is $209,000,  Moerman said, but the city will only be  responsible for paying about $49,000 of  that. The property owners will reimburse  the city $160,000 when they sell  their land to developers. The amount  each person will owe the city will be  determined by a per-acre fee based on  the number of acres owned.

“It’s very interesting to see the city  working together with the property  owners to maximize the opportunity,”  said RDG’s Platts.

The Crosswinds project has been  under consideration since the fall of  2004. The complete Crosswinds proposal  calls for three districts, all connected  by an overlay district. West of  the Corporate Woods Drive interchange  would be Southwoods Crossing, a 300-  acre mixed-use business park. East of  the interchange would be the 470-acre  Crosswinds Business Park, a combination  of corporate offices and other commercial  uses, and the 300-acre Silverthorne  residential community.

About a year ago, the city started  talking more seriously with landowners  about working together on development  plans for the area. Moerman said  the process has taken quite a bit of time  to get to this point, but he said the  deliberate pace has allowed the city to  build relationships with the property  owners, which should help throughout  the remainder of the project.

“By the time we started developing  the reimbursement agreement and consultant  agreement, that process went  much more smoothly because we all  have a much clearer consensus on how  the planning process is going to work,”  Moerman said.

Platts said RDG plans to begin individual  interviews with property owners  this week, and hold a two-day workshop  Feb.7-8 with property owners and  city staff to go over the results of the  interviews and see if everyone is “on  the same page.” He said RDG expects  to finish its design guidelines for the  project in mid-June.

Already, two projects have begun  on portions of the Crosswinds land, a  hotel and the Iowa Department of  Transportation’s new Polk County driver’s  license station. Moerman said the  design specifications approved for  those projects should complement  RDG’s broad planning recommendations  for the area.

“One of the challenges with a large  parcel like this is that it could take several  years to develop, and the value for  each property owner may not be realized  for years to come,” Moerman said.

“That’s why the city said it would  pay for the cost of the planning for the  business park up front and then be  reimbursed by the property owners  when they are enriched by selling the  property.”