IOWA CITY

A Windham Village plan will go in front of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors in December with an alternative proposed boundary.

The original proposed plan drew negative responses from more than 10 speaking at the county’s Planning & Zoning Commission’s meeting Nov. 14, a combination of residents and property owners.

One response: “Tell the Supervisors, leave Windham alone.”

The Windham Village rural area is located north of Frytown and southwest of Iowa City. The main highway through town is Black Diamond Road SW.

Windham Village is the last of nine small towns, or villages, in Johnson County that were targeted by the Board of Supervisors to develop official growth plans in a process that has taken years to complete. Other villages with adopted plans include River Junction (2019), Joetown (2014), Sharon Center (2014) and Frytown (2008).

One criticism by those commenting at the Planning & Zoning Commission was that opposition to the River Junction plan was not listened to.

Phil Hemingway, who was a Republican candidate for the Board of Supervisors, spoke in favor of an alternative, and smaller boundary, for Windham Village that was proposed by a resident.

After a discussion of nearly an hour, the smaller village boundary is what the commission approved by a 4-1 vote. And that is the plan that will go in front of the Board of Supervisors for final approval at its Dec. 8 formal session at 5:30 p.m.

The journey toward adoption of a Windham Village plan began with a community meeting in July, followed by another community meeting in August that helped produce a more restrictive boundary.

The alternative plan, which covers about 155 acres, was submitted by Pat Mougin and was nearly unanimously accepted by the Planning & Zoning Commission. The plan submitted by county staff covers 196 acres.

At its Dec. 8 meeting, which will include a public comment segment, the Board of Supervisors may still opt for either plan.

Elections update

The voter turnout for November’s mid-term election in Johnson County was more than 20,000 under the total turnout for the presidential election of November 2020.

According to data released by the county, the Nov. 8 election resulted in 64,023 ballots cast, or about 70% of eligible voters, the Board of Supervisors was told at its Nov. 16 work session by the county auditor’s staff.

In the 2020 election, 84,198 votes were cast.

The 2022 election lured about the same number of voters as the 2018 mid-term election did.

Although Kim Reynolds, a Republican, was re-elected to a second four-year term as governor by a wide margin statewide in Iowa, she captured just 29% of the vote in Johnson County as Deidre DeJear, a Democrat, totaled 43,686 votes to Reynolds’ 18,413.

Democrats also carried the vote in other major races, including Michael Franken in the U.S. Senate battle against Republican Chuck Grassley and Christina Bohannan in the U.S. House race against Mariannette Miller-Meeks. But overall in the state, Grassley and Bohannan carried the voting.

In fact, while a “red wave” did sweep Iowa, Johnson County was among the counties going all blue, joining the Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Waterloo areas to do the same.

Jon Green and V Fixmer-Oraiz, both Democrats, won four-year terms to the Board of Supervisors. The terms begin Jan. 1, 2023, although Green is already on the board because he won a special election to finish out a term more than a year ago.

The Board of Supervisors conducted its canvass of votes on Nov. 15.