Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series examining the impact a new regional shopping mall could have on the Jim Ketelsen Greenwing Marsh.

A man memorialized

Kathe Ketelsen pulls up long stalks of prairie grass, one at a time, breaking each before tossing it back into the brush, as she and her daughter Andrea wind around the green path circling Jim Ketelsen Greenwing Marsh. Andrea picks up the occasional plastic bag blown in from the highway a few hundred feet away on the bright, chilly April morning.

The marsh they walk by runs alongside Interstate 35, cut out of the sprawling agricultural lands just east of Ames. The quiet green space, bursting with plant and animal life, may soon be interrupted, however, by a 700,000-square-foot shopping mall on the land directly south of the marsh.

“Jim grew up in Ames,” Kathe said of her husband, the man for whom Ketelsen Marsh is named. “He was a star athlete. He played football and basketball and ran track,” she said, speaking as much to the marsh as to her daughter or those around to listen. “He was pretty good. I think he ran on a relay team.”

Then, to Andrea, “I think your grandpa kept clippings from the state meet.”

After graduating from Ames High School in 1965, Jim served in the Vietnam War. After returning home in the early 1970s, he went to Des Moines Area Community College, earned a two-year degree and went to work for his father.

The Ketelsens owned a hardware store, Carr True Value, in downtown Ames, where Jim and his brother both worked with their father. As a hardware man, Jim was well-known and well-liked.

“He was always nice to the little old ladies,” Kathe said. “People would come in and ask for him. That’s just kind of how he was. He had a big impact on people.”

In the hardware business, Jim had the opportunity to share his love for the outdoors.

“Everyone liked him. At the store, people would come and just visit with him about hunting,” she said. “He’d show them the right kind of shells to use.”

Hunting was a part of Jim’s daily life, whether advising others at the hardware store, participating in a wetlands conservation group or going out hunting himself.

“It was his passion — and the way he spent his time during the season,” Kathe said. “He hunted as often as he could — whenever he’d have a day off, and during vacation time too.”

Jim liked hunting waterfowl the best, she said, and he was heavily involved with the ISU chapter of the conservation group Ducks Unlimited, organizing fund-raisers and helping out with the Greenwing youth hunting education program. The “Greenwing” in the marsh’s name comes from this organization.

Jim died in November 1986 while duck hunting on the Des Moines River. Authorities believe his boat capsized, which caused him to become hypothermic and drown. His body was not found until the next February, despite the efforts of family and friends who traveled from as far away as Chicago to help search, Kathe said. He was 39 years old.

Meanwhile, throughout the 1980s, the Story County Conservation Board had been haggling trustees for a farm estate east of Ames to buy land to establish a wetlands preserve. Finally, in 1987, through the efforts of the conservation board, a local doctor and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation bought the land where the marsh stands today and turned it over to Story County. Shortly afterward, local conservation leaders approached the Ketelsens with the idea of naming the land after Jim. The site was dedicated June 11, 1989.

“It was exciting when they came to us,” Kathe said. “We knew we loved him and that he was well liked, but we didn’t know how far-reaching it was.”

The road to a new mall

Like the struggle to establish the marsh, the push for a new mall in Ames has been years in the making, with a Tennessee-based developer named James “Bucky” Wolford leading the way. His company, Wolford Development Inc., has an option to buy the land at the northeast corner of Interstate 35 and 13th Street. In January of this year, Wolford successfully lobbied to have the city’s Land Use Policy Plan map changed to designate the area as the site of future large-scale commercial development. The map change, viewed as the make-or-break decision for a new mall in Ames, was among the most contentious decisions in recent City Council memory, passing with an early-morning 4-2 vote after hours of public debate.

On April 7, the City of Ames Planning and Zoning Commission approved the annexation application for the site, initiating the next step in the process that could lead to a new regional shopping mall or other large-scale commercial construction.

Annexation officially brings the land in as part of Ames. The Ames City Council will make the final decision on annexation at its Tuesday meeting.

Wolford will face hurdles if the council approves the annexation, including zoning and subdivision of the property and approval of building permits.

The next step will be rezoning the land, which is currently a corn field zoned as agricultural. The City Council decided in early March the land would be zoned a Gateway Overlay District, a broad designation allowing the city to create development rules specific to the site. In addition, the council established input sessions for community stakeholders with expertise in various aspects of development — including environmental concerns — to have a say in the implementation of the overlay district. These input sessions will take place throughout summer, Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco said.

“[Regulations regarding environmental effects] will come to fruition when we get to rezoning and when Wolford signs the developer’s agreement,” Tedesco said. “Environmental issues will be part of the council’s decision to grant the zoning request.”

Environmental concerns, particularly those related to Ketelsen Marsh, have already been analyzed to an extent through the early stages of the process, said City Planner Joe Pietruszynski.

One environmental study, included in Wolford’s application for the Land Use Policy Plan map change, has been submitted so far, though regulations created by an overlay district committee and approved by the City Council could require further investigation.

“The city doesn’t require further study,” Pietruszynski said, “but we could through the rezoning or subdivision processes.”

An environmental input session could ask for a further study to be required as part of zoning regulations.

In the one submitted study, completed in November 2001 by Allender Butzke Engineers Inc., environmental concerns were not related to the marsh and future development were found.

The study stated, in part, “The Jim Ketelsen Greenwing Marsh/ Story County Game Management Area is located north of the [Wolford] property … Visual observations of [this] property provided no indication of environmentally sensitive business being conducted in the vicinity of the [Wolford] property.”

Those closer to Ketelsen Marsh and with knowledge deeper than “visual observations,” however, disagree with the Allender Butzke findings.

The mall, planned to sprawl to as much as 700,000 square feet on a roughly 135-acre parcel, could have a profound effect on the marshland abutting it to the north, said Steve Lekwa, director of the Story County Conservation Board, which maintains the marsh.

“If they put a two-ton elephant on the park bench next to you, you might not get hurt,” he said, “But it will affect you.”

Tomorrow: A look at the environmental role of the marsh, the possible threats to it and solutions for preserving its natural character in light of a possible new neighbor.