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When Clyde Evans agreed to move from Palmdale, Calif., one of the fastest-growing communities in the nation, to become West Des Moines’ director of community and economic development in 1991, then-mayor George Mills wondered if he would be bored. Today, it’s hard to imagine he could be.

Especially since the turn of the century, West Des Moines has faced a series of what Evans describes as “once-in-a-lifetime opportunities” that have continued the community’s shift from a quiet bedroom community into a major city. Finally, city planners are getting back to a project they started in 1999: updating the comprehensive plan. Only now, it’s a whole new ballgame.

Whereas the 1993 plan envisioned sparse residential development west of what is now Jordan Creek Parkway, today’s plan anticipates a city that will extend far to the west and south, with more commercial and medium-density residential development. Boone-ville will likely be engulfed by development, along with land south of the Raccoon River around a proposed western bypass. It includes a technology hub around Microsoft Corp.’s proposed data center and more commercial and office space near a proposed 105th Street/Alice’s Road interchange.

Game-changer

Just as West Des Moines was starting to update its comprehensive plan, General Growth Properties Inc. proposed a major retail center that now spans 200 acres in what was originally designated as a 35-acre village center. As the city closed the deal on what became Jordan Creek Town Center, Wells Fargo & Co. said it wanted to build a 1 million-square-foot office complex south of the mall; then Aviva USA decided to build its headquarters next door, followed by Microsoft Corp., which bought land for a $500 million data center.

As all of these major projects came along, the city continued to put its comprehensive plan update on hold to focus on the specific projects. It amended its 1993 plan for each project. It created an economic development action plan in 2003 to handle the explosive growth around Jordan Creek, and spent the past couple of years developing a state-of-the-art traffic modeling system that will help better plan roadways for future development.

These pieces are now being integrated into a new plan that will help shape the vision for how the city would like to see growth beyond this point. This recent history also proves the correctness of Evans’ conception of a comprehensive plan: “A comprehensive plan is a long-term look at how we think something might happen or how we’d like to see things happen, and I always refer to it as a living document. It’s not fixed in stone, and you have to adjust the plan based on changes in economic conditions and how development is occurring.”

Some of the primary areas the city is looking at in its new land-use study include:

• Land-use changes in the southeast quadrant, south of Iowa Highway 5 and east of Interstate 35. This area will be the focus of a June 24 Plan and Zoning Commission meeting and will feature major office development and supporting commercial development.

• Land-use changes west of Jordan Creek Parkway along Mills Civic Parkway. The city had not expected the mall would attract as much office development as it did, so it has had to plan for higher-density development.

• The 105th Street/Alice’s Road interchange proposed to go over Interstate 80 and connect with Waukee has “really had a dramatic impact on what’s going to be happening in that corridor,” Evans said. The city has planned for office and commercial use.

• Microsoft’s purchase of about 50 acres at Booneville Road and Xavier Place has led the city to plan for offshoot technology-related businesses in that area. Evans said that shortly after Microsoft announced its plans, the city received several calls from companies interested in locating nearby, including one Web portal operation that would have had an initial employment of abut 600 people. He still expects the data center project to move forward.

Western bypass

Much of the area being planned to the west and south of current development isn’t even under the city’s jurisdiction yet, but Evans said the city prides itself on looking ahead. By planning for areas outside its limits, the city can anticipate what development might occur in a location and add water lines, sewer lines and roads capable of handling that growth.

One area of major focus is south of the Raccoon River, where a proposed bypass will run between Interstate 35 to Interstate 80. “We see this area having in the future a lot of development potential,” Evans said, with the city anticipating in its land-use plan that it could attract major office development similar to that along Westown Parkway.

The Raccoon River Land Co., which is owned in part by Knapp Properties Inc., already has about 1,900 acres assembled in that area and is planning for a variety of development, including parks and large-lot housing along the river followed by more dense development toward the proposed bypass.

So far, said Gerry Neugent, president and chief operating officer of Knapp Properties, the city’s vision seems to be in alignment with what his group has planned, thanks to ongoing discussions between developers and city planners. “We would not be incented to develop if we didn’t think the plan was workable or if it called for infrastructure that didn’t make sense,” Neugent said.

The biggest piece the developers are working on is finding public-private financing and talking with landowners about building a bridge that would extend 105th Street over the river.

Having a plan that shows future development, like that south of the river, helps “give landowners some incentive to move forward a little quicker,” said Steve Dallenbach of Dallenbach & Larson Development LLC. His company is overseeing about 360 acres in the former Michael’s Landing development for two banks involved in the Regency Homes downfall.

Dallenbach has been working with the city on changing the details of how that area should be developed now that the concept has changed from a single developer overseeing the mixed-use community to his group’s approach of selling lots to individual developers and home builders. Many of these planning discussions over land banks have foreclosed on are too detailed to be reflected in the more general comprehensive plan.

However, one benefit of the plan is that it could help drive infrastructure west, where the city expects future development. “It’s extremely necessary that the city of West Des Moines continue to bring streets and sewers through that western corridor,” Dallenbach said, “because that’s where we see the most growth expansion coming as soon as the economy picks up again.”

The plan also has helped the city work with the three school districts within its jurisdiction, because if population growth continues at its current pace, it could overwhelm some schools. The Tournament Club of Iowa, for example, was looking at a site in West Des Moines that would have more than doubled the number of families in the Van Meter Community School District.

The city also is working on updating its economic development action plan, now that many of the objectives it set in 2003 have been met. At the June 1 meeting, the City Council approved a $70,000 consulting agreement with Angelou-Economics Inc. of Austin, Texas. Evans expects it will take about six months to complete the project, which will look at things such as its competition and how it can best situate itself for future growth.

After reviving an initial comprehensive plan draft from 2006 and having the Citizens Advisory Committee review their initial proposals in light of changes that have occurred in the past two years, the Plan and Zoning Commission will discuss sections of the plan in several meetings this summer. Evans expects the completed plan will be before the City Council this fall and approved by the end of the year.

But, Evans points out again, “A comprehensive plan is a living, breathing document, so you’re always tweaking it. It doesn’t sit still. If it sits still, then you evidently don’t have a lot going on.”

To see West Des Moines’ original comprehensive map, click here.