King Irving Neighborhood Association

Central Iowa Neighborhoods 2007 - Article

King Irving

Fifteen years ago, parts of King Irving were in a downward spiral. Now, people are commenting that they are seeing the King Irving neighborhood in an upward trend. This did not occur overnight. It has taken almost exactly a decade of effort by the King Irving Neighborhood Association and community partners to put everything together.

New houses are going up, and about four dozen have been built and sold under the King Irving Neighborhood Plan. Another dozen were put on the market this spring, with more to follow.

Habitat for Humanity is active in King Irving, and King Irving and Mondamin Presidential, the adjacent neighborhood to the northwest, have been selected together as one of four areas in the nation for an intense neighborhood effort by Habitat, working with a $500,000 grant and $500,000 loan from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. When the Thrivent grant is leveraged, it will lead to about $11 million of investment in the two neighborhoods. This effort is in the planning stages now, and if the neighborhoods are selected to receive the funding, implementation will begin in 2008.

King Irving has turned around enough that builders are coming in to remodel existing houses and resell them. Neighborhood leaders and residents are particularly proud that two families during the past year have actually built houses for themselves in the area, something that has not happened for many years.

Other revitalization projects changing perceptions of the neighborhood include remodeling and expansion of the Forest Avenue branch of the Des Moines Public Library, a $450,000 project to improve Evelyn Davis Park and planning for a multimillion dollar remodeling of King Elementary School, which will get a geothermal heating system within the next few years.

The tree planting project, funded by the U.S. Forest Service, Iowa Department of Natural Resources Forestry and Des Moines Forestry, has done more than previous efforts to generate good will for the neighborhood association. Mayor Frank Cownie planted the 200th tree, and King Irving leaders invited Kathy Kahoun of the City's Neighborhood Development Division and Councilman Tom Vlassis to plant the 199th in recognition of the city's efforts in the housing program.

The neighborhood is almost a textbook example of the success that can be achieved when different organizations cooperate. The tree planting effort succeeded only because about a dozen groups worked together on tree planting days. The new housing project, led by the city’s Neighborhood Development Division, is now beginning to show results. This project requires the coordination of so many different organizations working together to pull it off that some in King Irving have referred to is as “a remarkable dance of competence by municipal government.”

One goal of King Irving is to enable even more coordination and cooperation between all parties with interests in the neighborhood.

Links

Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity
Thrivent Builds Neighborhoods
City of Des Moines Community Development Department
Des Moines Public Library
Evelyn K. Davis Park
King Elementary School
Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Des Moines Forestry