The Northeast Polk County Beltway is a proposed traffic corridor around the northeast side of the metro area through the last expanse of Polk County's prime farmland. The proposed beltway would extend from Altoona at I-80 north to the edge of the city of Elkhart (or possibly much farther north), west to the Polk City area, and then south to IA 141/IA 415. To download and view a map of the range of alternatives under consideration for the Northeast Polk County Beltway click here.

Allowing the Northeast Beltway project to advance also sets a precedent for other beltway projects to follow. As of the fall of 2007, a NorthWEST Beltway began popping up on regional highway plans. This beltway would begin about six miles west of the Jordan Creek Parkway interchange and loop far north, then west to the Polk City area, and likely connect with the proposed Northeast Beltway.

Currently the NE Beltway alignment alternatives under consideration are:

• An interchange at I-80, just west of Adventureland
• Several north-south beltway alternatives as far west as NE 46th St or east at NE 56th St
• Alternatives turning west just southwest of Elkhart, meeting two possible interchanges at I-35, and continuing to Highway 69
• Alternatives continuing north, just east of Elkhart, then turning west as far north as Story County at IA 210 with interchanges at Highway 69, then heading west
• Widening I-35 to 8 to 10 lanes

Talking Points:

Above all, the important message to convey is that any alignment for a new beltway in Northeast Polk County is too costly and unacceptable. The “build it and they will come” approach to handling traffic is an expensive cycle of sprawling development that society can’t afford in the face of high gas prices.

The Northeast Beltway would exacerbate sprawling, auto-dependent development with taxpayer dollars

• Proposing highways and interchanges on the urban fringe attracts land speculators to purchase land and puts development pressure in rural areas and wildlife corridors.
• Sprawling development on the urban fringe increases the miles people drive to get places and inefficiently consumes land. This results in increases to auto-related greenhouse gas emissions.
• This beltway, which would cost at least several hundred million dollars of public money, would amount to a huge public subsidy for big-box stores, chains, and other businesses with deep enough pockets to afford to buy land along the beltway.
• Development along the beltway would inevitably lead to neglect of existing under-utilized urban land. For example, recent U.S. Census numbers showed that the city of Ankeny was the fastest growing city in Iowa between 2000 and 2007. Meanwhile, the city of Des Moines lost population in that time frame.
  

The Northeast Beltway proponents have not promoted meaningful public participation in the planning process

• The public has not been involved in the discussion about the need for the beltway. The few public meetings held were gathering input about the road’s location, not the road’s necessity.
• The alternatives presented have not included sustainable alternatives, such as alleviating interstate traffic through modest improvements to existing roads, and high-speed rail between Ames and Des Moines. We don’t need to build a beltway only a few miles parallel to an existing interstate.
• Of the hundreds of citizens who have commented on the beltway and attended meetings, very few of them were in favor of the project. This has not slowed down Polk County officials or road building interests from pursuing more federal money.
  

The Northeast Beltway would impact prime farmland, natural areas, and the area’s overall quality of life

• Local residents value their communities’ small town flavor and rural way of life. Development along the beltway would destroy what citizens enjoy most about the area.
• Northeast Polk County is home to some of the finest, most productive soils in the world. Once farmland is lost, it cannot be reclaimed.
• Wildlife corridors and natural areas like prairie and wetlands could be disrupted in some of the alternative beltway locations under consideration.

Iowa and Polk County can and should do better

Across the nation successful and often expensive efforts have been undertaken to undo exactly what our policy-makers are trying to foist upon the public with this road proposal.  Global climate issues, loss of farmland, increasing food prices, increasing petroleum prices, increasing tax burdens all point to the need to reverse our automobile-dependency. Defeating this road plan will address these impending issues our policy-makers continue to ignore or gloss over.  Not building the road will eliminate the need for radical and costly change that has taken place in other parts of our nation.  There are economic, political, architectural, and personal solutions that can steer us out of our auto-dependent lifestyles and help to halt our march onto prime farmland in Polk County while adding to the economic base of infrastructure that already exists in our towns and cities.

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