Residents praise added conservation but press board on traffic, schools and drainage

During the public hearing on the Snyder parcels, multiple residents voiced conditional support for increased conservation but pressed the board for more detail on traffic, school capacity and stormwater.

Emery Height of 1129 Even House Road said he was generally supportive of more conservation but asked whether a developer has a specific proposal and warned of rising traffic on Evenhouse Road, especially near Experiment Station Road. "I am in favor of this. I like the idea of increasing the, conservation area there," Height said, while also noting concern about road wear and a nearby crash history in the area.

Chris Alexander of 656 Evenhouse Road said he could not find proposed plans online and prefers lower density for the area, arguing the RN2 category leaves a broad range of housing types possible. The board and staff responded that site‑specific details could bias the quasi‑judicial zoning decision and that transportation impacts and school concurrency are addressed later in site‑specific permitting through required studies and Polk County school capacity determinations. In response to a resident’s reading of school‑impact estimates, staff explained that concurrency rules allow adjacent‑zone capacity to be used or mitigated through developer contributions.

Residents also raised drainage concerns after nearby school construction; staff said typical stormwater requirements call for on‑site retention and attenuation and that overflows generally occur only in extreme storm events.