Polk County conservation staff told the Board of Supervisors the county is ready to accept land and easements from the City of Des Moines for a segment of the ICON Water Trails project after multiple years of negotiation and environmental review.

Rich Leopold, director of Polk County Conservation, told the board the county and city legal teams have worked since 2022 to finalize the transfer. Leopold said environmental surveys for the land the county will own and for land where it will hold easements "came back clean" and that remediation work is underway on nearby properties associated with a historic Superfund site; he said mutual indemnification clauses are included in the agreements.

Nut graf: The transfer is part of a larger downtown improvement funded in part by a 2021 Polk County bond referendum and county-managed bond proceeds. Leopold said the ICON site is part of an approximately $28 million overall project and that voters in 2021 approved $65 million in bond funding countywide, with $10 million of that initially identified for the ICON Water Trails site.

At the meeting the board thanked county staff and legal counsel and voted in favor of the resolution to proceed with the land transfer and related agreements. A roll-call vote recorded the supervisors as voting yes on the motion.

Leopold described the project as creating park access along the Raccoon River and said the ICON partnership has leveraged additional outside funding for downtown improvements. The transcript records board appreciation for staff work negotiating indemnification and environmental protections and notes the county will manage the site once the transfer is complete.

Ending: The transfer moves forward subject to the executed agreements described at the meeting; any additional environmental findings, remediation steps or outside approvals noted in the agreements would be documented in follow-up materials or future staff reports to the board.