(SIOUX CITY, IA) - Sioux City's city council and other city members hopped on a bus Thursday to tour the city's current and future projects.
The city takes these bus tours every year, sometimes twice a year to take a look at the improvements its made and shape plans for the future. On Thursday afternoon, that bus tour was especially long because the number of sites on the tour was much greater than usual.
"We're showcasing projects here that still have not been approved yet. And so it gives them an idea of where their projects are at, what the impact, and also during their capital improvement project review process, they're able to have this first hand experience of seeing where the projects are," said Jeff Hanson, the Sioux City Community Development Operations Manager.
A big chunk of the tour gave them a look at improvements to sites like West 7th Street.
"You're going to see a similar project that we've done on Historic 4th street and most recently historic Pearl Street, the historic Pearl district. So we're going to not only reconstruct West 7th, but it'll also offer a facade program to assist with the existing commercial businesses and any new businesses along West 7th," said Hanson.
Further north is a potential site for a new Walgreens on 19th Street and Hamilton Boulevard. Plans have gone through Planning and Zoning and they're now heading to city council for approval.
"I think the current developer has done a good job of addressing the concerns on traffic and on the retaining walls and so on. Did a good job on working with the neighborhood," said Marty Dougherty, the city's Economic Development Director.
"The developer has agreed to put additional landscaping up on top of Gilman Terrace to address concerns of those neighborhoods about what they will see visually out their front door," said Hanson.
Overall, it's a chance for these city leaders to really get a sense of how the city's moving forward.
"It's always good to see new development occurring in your community and obviously to clean that corner off and to straighten the traffic up from 28th and Pierce is a big deal and to have a Walgreens will spur other development along Hamilton, which years ago was decided Hamilton was going to be a commercial corridor. I just think that continues to progress and I think it's good to have a corner like a Walgreens on it. I think it'll be good for that whole area," said Mayor Bob Scott.
2012 was a record breaking year for Sioux City. 81 new housing units went up last year. The last time Sioux City had a year like that was in 2003.
