On August 19th, a public notification was posted in Oak Grove Park stating that a request for special execption application is under consideration for the park property*. Further investigation revealed that, Verizon Wireless has submitted a request to the City of Iowa City to build a 100 ft. cell tower inside park premises.

Oak Grove Park is located at the corner of South Dodge and Page Street in Iowa City.

The tower structure will be placed in the North-West corner of the park and be trapezoidal in shape, measuring 50’ x 50’ x 50’ x 37’ or about 2,156 ft². The tower will also have a driveway included that will further impact park land.  To put this in context, the average one story home in this neighborhood measures about 1000-1200 ft² or about half the size of the footprint of this tower. 

 Oak Grove Park is the only park servicing the residential area south of downtown.  As such it is a wonderful meeting spot for neighbors and families.  Featuring a basketball court, playground, picnic gazebo and many beautiful old growth trees, the park is the heart of our neighborhood.  This structure would not only take up a significant portion of the already small park but it would irreparably alter its atmosphere.  

 Please also consider emailing Sarah Walz (sarah-walz@iowa-city.org) at the Iowa City planning and zoning department and tell her you do not want this tower built in our park.  She has assured me that our community feedback will be considered seriously in the decision to approve this structure.  Please email her with your concerns as soon as possible to aid in the City’s process.

Additionally, A public meeting is scheduled to be held, September 9 at 5:15 PM in Harvat Hall (City Hall), Iowa City, IA.  This will be the publics opportunity to speak out in favor of preserving the park.  All are encouraged to attend.

*A special exception is something that is written into the zoning code as a use than can be considered on a case-by-case basis in certain zones and on certain conditions. Whether this application satisfies all the criteria in the code is in question.