Bettendorf's 53rd Avenue – once planned as a 4-lane divided east-west roadway connecting the city's growing northern residential areas – will end in the middle of a cornfield when the city's planning and zoning commission gives its expected approval Wednesday (9/18) to a new housing subdivision in its path.
The subdivision effectively will block extension of 53rd Avenue to Criswell Avenue to the east, and would eliminate an alternative transportation plan proposed in 2003 which would have connected 53rd Avenue with a new north-south street linking to Crow Creek Road on the south and Hopewell Avenue on the north.
The subdivision rezoning, preliminary and final plat for Unity Corporation/Republic Electric Company is part of a deal negotiated by City Administrator Decker Ploehn and approved by the city council last month. That agreement calls for the city to pay the estimated $200,000 cost to build a street connecting 53rd Avenue, where it now ends near Joshua Street, with another new subdivision – Century Heights 20th Addition – north of 53rd Avenue.
Neighbors in the area had voiced concern about construction equipment and truck traffic using their residential streets to access the proposed Century Heights development because new roadways have not yet been built to connect the development to either Hopewell Street or 53rd Avenue. The city plans to extend Hopewell to provide access to the Century Height development, but that effort has been delayed because it has been unable to obtain the necessary right-of-way.
Unity Corp./Republic Electric agreed to allow construction of the new access street across its property under the development agreement, which also required that Unity submit a plat for its land within 60 days. That is the rezoning and subdivision plan now before the planning and zoning commission.
Where 53rd Avenue will terminate near Joshua Street.
Looking west on 53rd Avenue toward Middle Road roundabout. The city owns enough right-of-way to build another two lanes south of the existing two lanes of 53rd Avenue.
