The Perry City Council approved the purchase of about 15 acres of wetlands and farm ground June 15 in a bid to protect the new water treatment pond north of the Perry Soccer Complex and extend the “dynamic passive recreation opportunities” open to residents.
The city will pay $134,500 for the property lying south of Willis Avenue, east of Diagonal Road and north of the soccer complex. The purchase price includes a $100,000 Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) grant awarded to Perry by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
The city will pay $89,300 for a 9.16-acre parcel owned by Barck Rentals LLC and $45,200 for a 6.25-acre parcel owned by Chriss E. Barck and Shawn Barck. The value of the adjacent properties was assessed in 2019 by the Dallas County Assessor’s office at $82,440, which the purchase price exceeds by $52,060 or 63% higher than the assessed value.
The DNR required an independent appraisal of the properties and approved the sale price, according to Perry City Manager Sven Peterson.
“It’s definitely important for us to be able to have control of that wetland,” Peterson told the city council June 15. “If somebody went in there and tiled that wetland, it could drain our pond from the soccer complex.”
In its August 2018 application for the REAP grant, the city said, “The owner of the two parcels comprising the wetland has been approached by developers looking to build on these parcels in the past. Perry is afraid that discussions with developers interested in draining the wetland and developing residential will continue unless the city is able to purchase this land and secure the wetland into perpetuity.”
Peterson told the council there is “a mutually beneficial relationship there between those two bodies of water. They kind of equalize the water through those two areas.”
Along with preserving the wetland on the property, the long-term plan for the rest of the property calls for planting it in prairie grass and building “an accessible boardwalk to provide residents — especially students — with more direct access to the wetland complex, further educating the populace of its importance while providing opportunities for walking, jogging, photography and wildlife observation,” according to the REAP grant application.
“And we’ll be encouraging all the geese to go to the wetland instead of the pond,” Peterson told the council, whose mirth was a little broken up by the uneven Zoom connection.
The Perry City Council will next meet in a special session at the end of the 2020 fiscal year Tuesday, June 30 at 8 a.m. in the Clarion Room of the Security Bank, 1102 Willis Ave.
