2017 Spencer Comprehensive Land Use Plan

Spencer, Iowa  2017  Comprehensive Plan

multiple family housing along with senior and assisted care housing, are made available to all individuals. 3. Commercial Activities - Develop a diversified local commercial base that will provide the city with a wide range of goods and services. Encourage future development to locate within the historic Downtown Spencer or along the Highway 18/71 business corridors to better utilize existing infrastructure and result in efficient land use patterns. 4. Industrial Activities - Continue efforts toward acquisition of future industrial growth, as well as emphasizing the support and retention of existing industrial development. Encourage Industrial development in planned industrial parks or existing industrial sites, where utility demands can be met without costly upgrades. 5. Economic Development - The city should broaden the base of its economy through the attraction and retention of industry and maintaining, broadening, and strengthening the retail and service sectors of the economy. 6. Community Facilities - The quality of services and facilities should be maintained, and modern technologies should be incorporated when available, feasible and cost-effective. 7. Recreation/Open Space - Provide residents and visitors with choices for types and amounts of recreational activities desired. 8. Transportation - Strive to sustain a planned transportation system designed to enhance the efficiency of movement of people and goods throughout the community. 9. Utilities - Ensure quality utility services are made available to all residents and businesses of the city at the lowest possible rates. 10. Annexation - Encourage orderly and structured growth of the city by first utilizing available land if applicable; but do not reject opportunities to voluntarily annex property or use involuntary annexation if in the best interest of the city. LAND USE CHARACTERISTICS & COMMUNITY GROWTH TRENDS The largest land use category in Spencer is currently agricultural land which comprises more than 1,900 acres of land within the city limits. The largest “developed” land use category is residential land uses (both single and multiple family residential) which consists of more than 1,300 acres of land within the city limits. The next largest land use category is comprised of civic or public lands within the city limits, at 881 acres. Land uses typically considered civic or public in nature include churches, schools, hospitals, municipal buildings, library, wastewater treatment plant, water treatment plant, civic clubs or lodges. Historical growth of the community developed around the historical downtown district in a traditional grid street pattern. A changing pattern is now visible in the western and southern portions of the community where the prominent street pattern is a combination of traditional grid, curvilinear streets, and cul-de-sacs indicative of newer residential subdivisions. Residential growth of the community over the last ten to twenty years has been primarily in a large residential subdivision on the city’s west side along with sporadic new subdivisions in the city’s northeast and southern fringes of the community. Commercial land uses are experiencing growth primarily along the Highway 71/18 corridor in the southwest part of the city. Industrial land uses have mostly developed within new industrial parks on the city’s far western and eastern fringes.

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NW Iowa Planning & Development