Transmitted is a request to set the date of public hearing as October 18, 2021, to approve the request by the City of Waterloo to vacate 0.18 acres of City owned right-of-way at East High School at 214 High Street, rescinding Ordinance No. 2618, and instruct the City Clerk to publish notice. 

The request to vacate City owned right-of-way will enable the City to correct a legal description for land previously vacated in 1972 and vacant a piece of City owned right-of-way that should have already been vacated years ago at East High School, because it is no longer needed for City purposes and is used as part of the school campus.

The site has been zoned “R-3” Multiple Residence District since the adoption of the Zoning Ordinance in 1969.

North – The Canadian National Railroad yard – M-1 Light Industrial District.

South – East High School – “R-3” Multiple Residence District.  

East – The Canadian National Railroad yard – M-1 Light Industrial District.

West –Downtown Waterloo - “C-2" Commercial District and “C-3” Central Business District

These vacate areas are not located in a flood plain as indicated by the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map No. 1900025 0189F

The vacate areas do not contain any utilities, it is currently baseball diamond at East High School.

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended unanimous approval of the vacate at their regular meeting on May 11, 2021. 

The request to vacate City owned right-of-way would not appear to negatively affect the area or traffic conditions. The two vacate areas currently contain a baseball diamond on East High School’s campus. One of the vacate areas was vacated on December 26, 1972, but has an incorrect legal description. That legal description will be revised as part of this vacate request. The Other area was a strip of right away between High Street and Cascaden Avenue that was never vacated even though the streets it connects to were vacated. The Waterloo Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the request at their regular meeting on May 11, 2021.

Therefore, staff recommends the Request by the City of Waterloo to vacate 0.18 acres of City owned right-of-way at East High School at 214 High Street and is located in the “R-3” Multiple Residence District, be approved for the following reasons:

1.  The request to vacate would not appear to have a negative impact on the surrounding area.

2.  The request to vacate would not appear to have a negative impact on vehicular or pedestrian traffic conditions in the area.

3. The request to vacate would allow for the revision of incorrect legal description for one of the vacate areas and vacate an area of City right-of-way that is no longer needed for City purposes

The request to vacate would not appear to have a negative impact on vehicular or pedestrian traffic in the area.

The proposed vacate would not appear to have a negative impact on drainage.

The Future Land Use Map designates the area as Parks, Open Spaces, Schools, Hospitals, Government Facility, and Public Areas. This vacate request would be in compliance with such designation.

There would be no platting required in relation to the request.  The City will complete a plat of survey to properly describe the area to be vacated, and delineate the line.

That portion of Fremont Street described as follows:

Beginning at the northeast corner of Lot 12, Block 3, Auditor Rainbow’s Plat of Cascaden Place; thence south along the east line of said Lot 12 to the southeast corner of said lot; thence south along the east line of that portion of Fremont Street previously vacated and last described in Deeds Book 492, Page 636 to its intersection with the eastward extension of the south line of Block 3, Auditor Rainbow’s Plat of Cascaden Place (said south line of Block 3 also being the north line of Pine Street as platted); thence east on the continuation of the eastward extension of the south line of said Block 3 to the west line of Block 74, Cooley’s Addition; thence north along the west line of said Block 74 to the south line of Lot 1, Block 4 of Auditor Rainbow’s Plat of Cascaden Place; thence west along the south line of said Lot 1 to the southwest corner of said Lot 1; thence north along the west line of said Lot 1 to the northwest corner of said Lot 1; thence west to the point of beginning.

The property described above being the same property described in City of Waterloo Ordinance No. 2618 and filed in Miscellaneous Book 202 at Page 280, in the Black Hawk County Recorder’s Office.

A certain tract or parcel of land situated in the Northeast quarter of the Northeast quarter of the Southwest quarter of Section twenty-four (24), Township eighty-nine (89) North, Range thirteen (13) West of the of the Fifth Principal Meridian bounded and described as follows, to-wit:

                Beginning at a point in the West line of the Northeast quarter of the Northeast quarter of the Southwest quarter of said Section twenty-four (24) fifty nine and one-half (59 ½) feet North of the Southwest corner thereof, and extending thence North forty one and one-half (41 ½) feet; thence Southeasterly parallel to the center line of the
Main track of the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad to the South line of the Northeast quarter of the Northeast quarter of the Southwest quarter of said Section twenty-four (24); thence West a distance of seventy (70) feet More or less to the Northeast corner of Lot eight (8), in Block seventy-four (74) of Cooley’s Addition to Waterloo; thence Northwesterly in a straight line to the place of beginning, containing one-tenth (1/10) of an acre, more or less.