Applicants propose 20 townhouses on county-owned strip next to public health building; staff raise sewer, zoning and access concerns

John Rasheed and Kathy Rasheed told Des Moines County officials in a work session that they want to buy a narrow county-owned strip north and west of the public health building on Curran and Agency and build roughly 20 townhouses, saying the units would be affordable but not subsidized.

"We'd like to build 20 units along the east side of the ravine," John Rasheed said, adding the couple plans to phase construction and start with a small number of homes to test viability. Kathy Rasheed said some units would be accessible for seniors and others configured for home-office use.

County staff and other meeting participants raised immediate technical and procedural hurdles. A county staff member noted that a sanitary sewer line and an associated catch basin run along the west edge of the parcel and that there is an easement and code requirements that limit what can be constructed there. "Our sanitary sewer line runs from here out and attaches, and then we have the catch basin here," the staff member said, noting engineering review would be required to calculate how additional impervious surface would affect runoff and detention needs.

Staff also flagged access constraints. The applicants proposed using Agency for access; they said an entrance off Curran might be too close to a freeway ramp and could trigger Iowa DOT spacing requirements. A county staff member suggested the applicants consult the City of Burlington engineering and planning departments to verify buildable area, road access and stormwater solutions.

The Rasheids said the parcel is currently zoned R-2 (single-family) and that they would pursue rezoning to R-4 (multi-family). "I talked to the city planner, Angela, about that, and she didn't think there'd be a problem with getting that strip of land rezoned to R-4, but it would have to go through the city zoning committee," John Rasheed said.

Officials also discussed the property’s role in the county’s long-term public-health planning. An agency official explained that when the county acquired land around the health building it was intended to provide surge capacity — for example, extra parking and space to stage vehicles during mass vaccination events — and that past planning had considered drive-through circulation and queuing for public-health operations.

A committee member reminded the applicants that any sale would need to follow legal and transparent procedures, with attorney review and a sealed-bid or public auction as appropriate. "Whatever the decision is, if we would make a decision, yeah, we would sell that property, it would have to be perfectly transparent," the committee member said.

Next steps agreed in the session were procedural and investigatory: the applicants will take their plan to the City of Burlington for engineering and planning review; county staff will measure and check site constraints and then schedule another working session if the parties can align on a feasible plan. The meeting closed without a formal vote or a sale commitment.

Authorities referenced in the session included the city zoning/ planning process (described by participants as involving the city planning commission and a zoning committee) and Iowa DOT access spacing considerations; no statutes, ordinance numbers or formal resolutions were cited during the discussion.

The county indicated engineers — either the city’s or hired by the applicants — must confirm how much land could be developed without violating the sewer easement, catch basin code or stormwater standards, and whether an access point could meet Iowa DOT requirements. The applicants said they were willing to investigate those constraints and return with a more detailed plan.