With its rundown brick buildings and generous share of delicious food and alcohol-serving businesses, Campustown is the center of life for many ISU students, at least those 21 or older. But its unique appeal relates not only to its varied services and establishments — Campustown has a physical character, too.

Unfortunately, the appearance of Welch Avenue and its surrounding areas are now threatened by apartment buildings towering over the majority of the older structures that originally made up Campustown. In reaction to the changing appearance of the business district of Campustown, the Ames City Council proposed a moratorium May 25 on building and demolishing along specific streets until Jan. 1, 2005.

The moratorium resolution, if passed by the City Council, will prevent construction on either side of the first block of Welch Avenue, on the south side of Lincoln Way one block either direction from Welch Avenue, on the north side of Knapp Street between Ash Avenue and Stanton Avenue, and on a small section of Knapp Street near Hayward Avenue.

Although the six-month moratorium doesn’t prevent eventual building of high-rise monstrosities in Campustown, it does provide time for city planners to establish regulations for appearances in the area. This sub-area planning will prevent the intrusion of things like a parking garage on the west side of Welch Avenue where businesses like the Welch Avenue Trading Post and Mickey’s are located, or a seven-story office building where the old Ames theater resides.

Whether the appearance of Campustown is aesthetic is subjective, but the mostly two-story edifices with facades of various colors and textures represent a historical district that is trumped in the city of Ames only by downtown. To allow growth at the current rate along the main lines of the district would ruin the atmosphere Campustown now enjoys since the City Council took action to revitalize the area’s former slum-like appearance.

Although the moratorium is more limited in scope than proposed, developers are still miffed at the concept of being told no to building after being drawn to the area by tax incentives and eased parking requirements in the Campustown Urban Revitalization Program.

Who will want to revitalize this area when the rules can be changed overnight, asked one developer. The answer is simple — those who still want a tax break in a highly lucrative city location that students are shelling out big bucks to live in. The only difference is they will now have to wait a meager six months to begin to realize those prospects — a six months worth waiting to ensure Campustown keeps its flavor.