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Winterset sets March 2 hearing on urban renewal amendment to back fieldhouse and police building with TIF
Summary
The Winterset City Council unanimously approved a resolution Feb. 2 to set a March 2 public hearing on an amendment to the Winterset Urban Renewal Plan that would allow tax increment financing to pay costs for a municipal fieldhouse and a police department building.
The Winterset City Council on Feb. 2 unanimously approved a resolution setting a public hearing for March 2, 2026, on a proposed amendment to the Winterset Urban Renewal Plan that would authorize use of tax increment financing to pay the costs of constructing a municipal fieldhouse and a police department building. Mayor Thomas J. Leners declared the motion carried after a roll-call vote that was voice-marked aye by all members present.
Council Member Christopher Fairholm moved to approve Resolution No. 2026-04; Council Member Mary Ann Orr seconded. The resolution directs that notice of the hearing be published in a legal newspaper not less than four and not more than twenty days before the March 2 hearing, and it designates the City Administrator or the City Finance Officer to serve as the city’s representative for the consultation process required under Section 403.5 of the Code of Iowa. The resolution specifically directs invitations to Madison County and the Winterset Community School District to participate in that consultation.
The amendment described in the resolution would expand projects in the Winterset Urban Renewal Area to include a new municipal fieldhouse and a police department building, funded in whole or in part by tax increment financing. The resolution itself does not appropriate funds or approve construction; it only establishes the required public hearing and consultation steps under state law.
City Administrator Andrew Barden is charged with publishing the hearing notice and handling statutory consultation. The council did not discuss bonding terms, project budgets or construction schedules at the Feb. 2 meeting; those substantive details are expected to be part of the public hearing and subsequent council deliberations.
The council will take public testimony at the March 2 hearing at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall. The city’s next procedural steps are publication of the hearing notice and the statutorily required consultations with county and school-district representatives.
