This project focused on the Leeds Neighborhood, located in northeast Sioux City. The commercial corridor within this neighborhood serves as the northeast entryway into Sioux City. The corridor contains a mixture of small retail stores, restaurants, and service establishments that serve the local neighborhood. As new national brand commercial developments continue to develop to the south of the Leeds neighborhood, the future character of its commercial corridor has been called into question. Students from the Urban & Regional Planning Dept.

Graduate students in the School of Urban and Regional Planning conducted a project that aided Sioux City in fulfilling its recently-designated Blue Zones ProjectTM requirement of developing an active transportation plan.

Students surveyed best practices of community riverfront redevelopment efforts similar to what was being looked at for the redevelopment of the section of the Mississippi River in Muscatine. The students solicited community input to identify the best uses for the land, ultimately producing a plan for the riverfront.

Students in the School of Urban and Regional Planning developed a connectivity master plan for Muscatine that evaluated current infrastructure and created a plan for better connectivity between walking and biking trails, sidewalks, streets, bus routes and major points of interest.

Urban and Regional Planning students studied the current state of the downtown area in Anamosa, Iowa and through research drafted a revitalization plan, Vision Anamosa, for local officials to use as they continue to build upon their current efforts.

Students in the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences assisted the City of Iowa City with their Leadership STAR Community Program application by gathering information about City policies, practices and actions in the areas assessed by STAR.