Today is exactly one month until the RAAC vs. City of Dyersville trial in Iowa District Court, scheduled for February 16, to determine if the Field of Dreams land was inappropriately or illegally rezoned to accommodate the All-Star Ballpark Heaven sports complex development. For those new here or who may perhaps be a bit unfamiliar with how this rezoning worked, as well as how it adversely affected the residents and farmers who neighbor that ground, here are the details. Let me be clear that these actions were enacted by the previous Dyersville administration under former Mayor Jim Heavens in 2012, prior to the current Mayor Alvin Haas. To help those outside the Dyersville area to understand the geography, I’ve included two maps from the official City of Dyersville website that shows the rezoned area which extends the city limits of Dyersville to include the Field of Dreams Movie Site and the entire 192 acres it sits on. One map displays the entire Dyersville area; the second is a closer look at the rezoned vicinity leading to the Field of Dreams land. This was the annexation expansion to allow for the All-Star Ballpark Heaven development, put in place by the City in August 2012 and beginning at the intersection of Golf Course Rd. and 13th Ave. NE. That zoning continues to encircle the Field of Dreams land, shaded in red as C-2 (commercial). This ground was originally A-1 (agriculture) before the ASBH sports complex was planned. Ordered by the City, spot zoning occurred at this C-2 location creating a 200 ft. buffer zone around the property, affectively taking away the rights of all the neighboring residents from having any type of say in what would be build on the Field of Dreams property. Here is the legal definition of spot zoning: “The granting to a particular parcel of land a classification concerning its use that differs from the classification of other land in the immediate area. Spot zoning is invalid because it amounts to an arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable treatment of a limited area within a particular district and is, therefore, a deviation from the comprehensive plan.” Aside from the removal of neighbors’ rights, the All-Star Ballpark Heaven development planned inclusion also went against the local Comprehensive Plan, which in this particular case states by law that no commercial development would be placed in the vicinity designated under this enacted plan. The Field of Dreams land became that targeted area for wrongfully changing the plan to allow for ASBH. The plan promises local residents that the land where they live will remain unchanged for a period of time, as was described when the plan set down. The current Comprehensive Plan, put in place in 2003, covers 20 years until 2023. In my opinion, as well as the opinion of many residents I have spoken with, greed was clearly the motivational factor for the Heavens administration to bring in this at-the-time $38 mil. project (more recent estimate: $70+ mil.), despite the troubling, valid concerns of residents. Local citizens have conveyed to me repeatedly about how the norm of this former administration frequently assumed an unspoken stance that they could act freely, unbound by Iowa codes and laws. However, the old saying goes, “what goes around, comes around”; these kinds of dealings will now hopefully catch up with those individuals who acted against what the citizen’s who voted them into office warned against. I’ll have more insightful information regarding elements of the upcoming RAAC vs. City of Dyersville trial in the coming days and weeks.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:03:00 +0000
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