The city of Des Moines has scrapped a requirement that Children and Family Urban Movement include a housing component as part of the organization’s plans to build a new headquarters in the River Bend Neighborhood.

Instead, it appears that about 1 acre of land that would have been occupied by affordable housing will shift toward another nonprofit group that has yet to present a firm development proposal to the city.

Developer Jake Christensen is leading the effort to gather CFUM’s operations under one roof from scattered locations. The organization’s mission is to create a community that supports the potential of children, youth and families through educational success, healthy living and community engagement, according to a city staff report to the city’s Urban Design Review Board. It involves neighborhood churches in delivering a range of services, and it wants a permanent home.

Plans presented this week to the city’s Urban Design Review Board call for a $4.5 million, two-story building on a little more than 1 acre of land at 915 College Ave., the former site of Dowling High School. The new building would have classrooms, office space, a kitchen and a food preparation area, a market for donated food, student workspace, and a green space for outdoor recreation.

Architect Greg Wattier said the building is being designed to fit the architecture of the historic neighborhood, where porches are predominant on homes and brick and steel appear to have been the order of the day on retail buildings. The city’s Historic Preservation Commission will review the project on Jan. 17.

Last year, the Des Moines City Council passed a resolution encouraging housing on the CFUM site, which is located on property that is currently owned by the city and in early plans totaled slightly more than 2 acres.

Christensen and developer Jack Hatch previously presented concepts to the Urban Design Review Board for two multifamily buildings on the site.

However, the plans apparently ran afoul of efforts by another nonprofit, Pillars of Promise, to obtain all but 1 acre of the property as part of a plan to redevelop about 9 acres of city-owned land that also includes the Grubb YMCA and Brian Melton Field.

Pillars of Promise has declined to discuss specifics of its proposals. However, it has met several times in recent months with city officials to discuss the project in the abstract.

Pillars of Promise is based in Des Moines and was organized in May, according to a filing with the Iowa secretary of state’s office. Its mission is to “fight intergenerational poverty in radically new ways,” according to its website.

The group has the support of individuals affiliated with Principal Financial Group Inc., Ryan Cos. US Inc., RDG Planning & Design, Lutheran Church of Hope and the Evelyn K. Davis Center.

A broad view of Pillars of Promise is to preserve or rebuild the Grubb YMCA and include a multipurpose community space.

According to its website, Pillars of Promise is “focused first in a disadvantaged area of north Des Moines impacting five neighborhoods. Its vision is for this initial project’s success to serve as a model that may be replicated in other neighborhoods in Iowa’s capital city, expand to other cities in the state, and around the nation.” 

The Hatch project was dropped from the CFUM development this fall, leading to a heated exchange between the former state senator and gubernatorial candidate and city officials during a Greater Des Moines Partnership forum on affordable housing.

Christensen said during the recent Urban Design Review Board meeting that the city could make housing another component of the overall development of the area if the state’s 5th Judicial District, which operates parole and other services from buildings that front Jefferson Avenue near Ninth Street, decides to leave its property, which would make the land available for housing.

Though CFUM will buy the necessary 1 acre for its development from the city, it will allow the city to buy back a slice of the northern end of that parcel if the 5th Judicial District property becomes available.