May 31, 2017: Behind the camera is some land inside Cedar Rapids’ city limits. With a recently approved annexation, the city will pick up again in the middle of the Williams Boulevard bridges over US 30.
For a few years now, there’s been a sign off Williams Boulevard coming into Cedar Rapids that says “Future Home of Church.” That’s finally going to move forward with an annexation by the city, the Gazette reports. The City Development Board had it on last week’s agenda.
The annexation, though small, is geographically significant. It’s bringing more of Williams Boulevard, and all of Business US 151, aka IA 922, inside the city limits. Curiously, the area (page 31 of this very large PDF) does not include the entire almost-enclave down to West Post Road, which would seem the obvious move, but only reaches the westbound lanes of US 30 despite a portion southwest of the DOT right-of-way already belonging to the city. It looks rather silly.
This small section of road has been classified as rural but that’s going to change with this annexation. Already, with the opening of a new clinic on Williams, a third stoplight has popped up between 30 and Edgewood Road. Soon, the CR city limit sign will move to the interchange, or maybe even Stoney Point Road, where the line stops dancing around and it’s time to enter Fairfax. (Link goes to the three-district Linn County supervisors map effective in the fall election, which is its own story.)