Developer WantsTo Entice Omahans Across The River
BY JOHN FERAK
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
MINEOLA, Iowa - The developer of a new 350-lot lakeside housing development hopes to lure commuters from metropolitan Omaha across the Missouri River to rural Mills County.
Craig Nakamoto plans to turn 700 acres of rolling hills and pasture land two miles west of this town of 200 into the largest subdivision ever built in this county.
Besides the housing development, to be called Lake Ohana, six to eight commercial buildings are planned on a four-acre site. Nakamoto hopes for a bank, restaurant, dry-cleaner, gas station and small grocery store.
One acre of the development would be donated to the Oak Township Fire Department in Mineola to build a new station.
Nakamoto has asked the Mills County Board for final approval of the first phase of the subdivision along 230th Street. The project is five miles north of Glenwood, in the Glenwood Community School District. Mineola is about 22 miles from Omaha.
If approved, the development would join several others that have sprung up in this Loess Hills area over the last decade. The housing boom has helped make Mills County one of the fastest-growing counties in Iowa.
Mills County Board member Joseph Blankenship of Glenwood said he plans to vote for the project. "I think it's a high-class development for southwestern Iowa," Blankenship said. "I don't know of any other developments currently like this. These will be expensive houses with a lake and public utilities."
The development will include three lakes, which would be "a huge attraction," County Engineer Jim Ebmeier said. "We have hardly any lakes in Mills County that are private," Ebmeier said. "This is a very nice development, and it's going to bring quality people to live there."
By early fall, if the county gives its approval, bulldozers will begin to construct a 20-acre lake.
Construction on a 120-acre lake, which will be large enough for recreational boating and watercraft, would start in summer 2006, pending state and federal approval. And a five-acre lake would offer fishing, paddle boats and canoeing.
Public water and sewer lines would be extended from Glenwood to serve the development, Ebmeier said. The Glenwood Utility Board is negotiating with Nakamoto to provide city water. Mills County is considering tax-increment financing to provide sanitary sewers, said Glenwood attorney Jim Thomas, who represents the Nakamoto land trust.
Most of the subdivision's lots would be one acre or larger. Houses would range in price from $250,000 to $500,000, Nakamoto said.
Nakamoto, who grew up in Hawaii, said he named the develop- ment after the Hawaiian word for family. The Glenwood resident has already built three smaller housing developments in the area.
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
MINEOLA, Iowa - The developer of a new 350-lot lakeside housing development hopes to lure commuters from metropolitan Omaha across the Missouri River to rural Mills County.
Craig Nakamoto plans to turn 700 acres of rolling hills and pasture land two miles west of this town of 200 into the largest subdivision ever built in this county.
Besides the housing development, to be called Lake Ohana, six to eight commercial buildings are planned on a four-acre site. Nakamoto hopes for a bank, restaurant, dry-cleaner, gas station and small grocery store.
One acre of the development would be donated to the Oak Township Fire Department in Mineola to build a new station.
Nakamoto has asked the Mills County Board for final approval of the first phase of the subdivision along 230th Street. The project is five miles north of Glenwood, in the Glenwood Community School District. Mineola is about 22 miles from Omaha.
If approved, the development would join several others that have sprung up in this Loess Hills area over the last decade. The housing boom has helped make Mills County one of the fastest-growing counties in Iowa.
Mills County Board member Joseph Blankenship of Glenwood said he plans to vote for the project. "I think it's a high-class development for southwestern Iowa," Blankenship said. "I don't know of any other developments currently like this. These will be expensive houses with a lake and public utilities."
The development will include three lakes, which would be "a huge attraction," County Engineer Jim Ebmeier said. "We have hardly any lakes in Mills County that are private," Ebmeier said. "This is a very nice development, and it's going to bring quality people to live there."
By early fall, if the county gives its approval, bulldozers will begin to construct a 20-acre lake.
Construction on a 120-acre lake, which will be large enough for recreational boating and watercraft, would start in summer 2006, pending state and federal approval. And a five-acre lake would offer fishing, paddle boats and canoeing.
Public water and sewer lines would be extended from Glenwood to serve the development, Ebmeier said. The Glenwood Utility Board is negotiating with Nakamoto to provide city water. Mills County is considering tax-increment financing to provide sanitary sewers, said Glenwood attorney Jim Thomas, who represents the Nakamoto land trust.
Most of the subdivision's lots would be one acre or larger. Houses would range in price from $250,000 to $500,000, Nakamoto said.
Nakamoto, who grew up in Hawaii, said he named the develop- ment after the Hawaiian word for family. The Glenwood resident has already built three smaller housing developments in the area.
posted by Susan VanSlyke at 1:51 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home