There’s always much discussion about why the Ames Community School District grows so slowly. The city’s Land Use Policy Plan attempts to support school district growth by encouraging housing development in the southwest. But a land sale reported in the Ames Tribune earlier this month once again suggests those who buy and sell large chunks of undeveloped Ames land simply won’t cooperate. Consider this deal.

On Nov. 24, 2009, home builder Bob Friedrich, Jr., representing something called Ringgenberg Estates LLC, told the Ames City Council that the owners and developers were selling 38 acres of land in southwest Ames. They no longer planned to build 140 homes there as long intended.

The city has wanted housing on this land for over a decade. The LUPP reflects this priority. The land is in the Ames Community School District. The land has been platted for housing since 2005. Public investments have been made to support growth in this area, for example, a new interchange at South Dakota and Highway 30.

Now come forward the developers, people in the business of building homes, and instead announce a land sale. The Ames Tribune reported a price of $560,860.

You might reasonably ask, why is this such a big deal? After all, the land is already annexed, the land is already zoned residential and the land is already plotted for houses. Someone else, you might think, will build these homes, grow the school district and raise the tax base.

Enter the university. Iowa State can legally ignore the LUPP, and it will. Iowa State won’t be building new homes, growing the school district and growing the tax base. No, the university plans to farm this land.

Someone really should explain why Iowa State would pay nearly $15,000 an acre to grow corn or soybeans in the city limits. How or where could the university, which seems to be cutting everything imaginable in its budget, even find $560,860 to buy some cropland? And finally, why would Iowa State make a purchase so contrary to the larger community interest?

Whatever happened to the notion of good corporate citizenship? Shouldn’t the university be supporting the LUPP, doing what it can to grow the school district and avoiding actions that damage the Ames tax base?

What if this deal interferes with the orderly development of Ames for many years to come? One need only look at how many years of ISU dairy farming distorted the normal development of Ankeny. The Iowa legislature finally had to intervene and insist the university divest. The legislators should intervene again. The university should never have made this purchase, and it should be required to divest.

Joe Rippetoe