Land previously occupied by the ISU Dairy Farm may be rezoned for residential use after a local real estate developer won the right to buy the land in a private auction.

The land, located at 2602 Mortensen Rd., was previously owned by the ISU Foundation. It was sold in a private auction Jan. 5 to Hunziker & Associates, 105 South 16th St., said Jason Menke, assistant director of communications for the ISU Foundation.

Both Hunziker & Associates and the ISU Foundation declined to reveal the price the land sold for.

“Right now, we are in the process of finalizing the process of the sale,” Menke said. “The sale is expected to be finalized in late February, and an announcement of the sale price will be made then on the Foundation’s behalf.”

The College of Agriculture announced in the summer of 2003 it would close the ISU Dairy Farm due to budget cuts within the college. The college’s budget has been cut for the past two years, and another cut is expected next year.

The university contracted Hertz Real Estate Services of Nevada to sell the land.

“The final bids were due on Dec. 31, 2003, and from there [the Foundation] and us invited bidders back,” said Tim Fevold of Hertz Real Estate Services. “We had bidders from throughout Central Iowa, so it’s fair to say the interest in the land was high.”

The 53.24 acres of land the ISU Dairy Farm occupied is zoned for agricultural use in Story County at the moment, Fevold said, but he said he believes it will be rezoned.

“We assume it will be rezoned as residential later, because it’s a prime area for residential development,” he said.

Hunziker & Associates declined to comment on how it will use the land.

According to the Story County Web site, www.storycounty.com, if Hunziker & Associates wanted to rezone the land, it would have to petition the Story County Board of Supervisors to amend the county’s zoning districts boundaries to change the district in which the property lies.

A “Petition to Amend Zoning District Boundaries” must be signed by the affected property owners and submitted to the Planning and Zoning Department. Department staff will review the application at a public meeting and forward a final recommendation to the Board of Supervisors.

“There is no use for the land, since the Dairy Farm is no longer there,” said Catherine Woteki, dean of the College of Agriculture. “We leased the land from the ISU Foundation for a number of years. People should know that the university has had a land use plan for a number of years, and it was indicated in the plan the land there would be sold.”

Despite the sale of the ISU Dairy Farm in Ames, the College of Agriculture still has a teaching and research dairy farm in Ankeny, Woteki said.