Cedar Valley Lakes

Black Hawk County, Iowa

Improvement of the Highway 218 and Highway 58 corridors through the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area were the catalyst for the development of an expansive open space system which is now the centerpiece of the metropolitan area. The Cedar Valley Lakes Project vision was a major water-oriented greenbelt along the Cedar River capitalizing on opportunities created by these federally-financed highway construction projects. The preliminary highway plans would have resulted in a chain of pits along the roadside. The result of this initiative is a 15-mile, multijurisdictional, urban greenbelt. It features over 500 acres of new and existing highway borrow lakes connected through a 100-mile recreational trail network. RKLA provided master planning and detailed site design over a period of 10 years for the Cedar Valley Lakes Project Board, which was composed of private citizens, representatives from area parks, tourism interests, and city and county staff. The project has enhanced the economic climate in the area by adding hundreds of acres of urban forests, wetlands, restored prairies, and lakes to the local park systems. The master plan strategically identified these lands in order to consolidate several thousand acres of parkland in multiple jurisdictions. Craig Ritland received the Sierra Club Business Service Award for the contributions he made on this project.

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