Council approves sale of part of Merriam's Park to Waterloo Schools for school-bus access; neighbors raised safety, green-space concerns

The Waterloo City Council voted 6–1 to approve a resolution authorizing the sale and conveyance of a portion of Merriam's Park east of 3843 Sager Avenue to Waterloo Community Schools for $1, retaining access and utility easements and requiring council approval for future changes.

The measure was adopted after a public hearing that drew more than a dozen residents from the adjoining neighborhood, who said the sale would shrink the park's accessible green space and bring buses and diesel exhaust nearer to play areas. "This leaves a very small area for family picnics, playing ball and walking dogs," Mary Jo Jewell said during public comment. "Please consider the safety of the children."

School representatives and the project team told council the roadway through the park is intended to be a controlled-access bus drive to service the new consolidated high school campus and would be used only during school operation hours. "There's no students who'll be driving on this road," Jared Smith, speaking for the Waterloo schools, told the council. "It's simply school buses." Kate (first name only in record), a school project representative, said the project team currently estimates "roughly 10 or 12 buses in the morning and the same in the afternoon," while city staff later noted the traffic study forecasts 14 buses at opening year and up to 17 by 2045.

Neighbors questioned the traffic study limits and whether future nearby Cedar Falls development had been included. Dennis Jewell asked whether the study examined intersections at Progress and Sager and the effect of nearby housing additions; the school-design team said the district's traffic study modeled traffic generated by the school and was reviewed by the city. "The traffic study went as far as it went out to Progress," Kaye Paine of Envision Architecture said. City engineer Jamie Knudson told the council that he and the city's traffic engineer had reviewed the study and that it had been revised to address city comments.

Council members described a series of compromises negotiated with neighbors and the school, including a guarded gate and a mechanical opening system that would restrict the drive to buses, a promise that the remaining parkland and detention areas would remain green space, and substitution of a black vinyl fence rather than galvanized chain link along adjacent property. Knudson told council that if the school later proposed changes affecting the detention basin or parkland, those changes would return to the city for review and would likely be expensive to implement, making immediate conversion unlikely.

Councilman John Childs, who led several of the neighborhood meetings, said the sale moves the property from one public steward to another and that the sale documents require the school to return to council for permission to alter the open-space uses. "The park will remain green space," Childs said.

The resolution passed on a roll-call vote with Councilman Simon the sole dissenting vote. The council adopted the measure after receiving written comments and a petition on file from neighborhood residents.

Looking ahead, the city and district officials said more traffic and signal design work is planned; the city will explore longer-range work at Huntington and Katowksy (Kotowski) and possible roundabout options as part of a broader construction and traffic plan tied to the new school construction.