WATERLOO — Deer Creek Development has taken another step to redevelop the former Waterloo Greyhound Park.
Members of the Waterloo Planning, Programming and Zoning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to endorse a special permit to allow the developer to fill seven acres on the site to get it out of the 100-year flood plain.
Deer Creek President Harold Youngblut said the move will make the site more attractive to potential projects because they won’t be saddled with costly flood insurance.
The special permit to bring in an estimated 16,500 cubic yards of clean fill to the site now heads to the city’s board of adjustment for final approval.
Youngblut purchased the 43-acre dog track site in 2018 and demolished the dilapidated buildings which had become a community eyesore at the intersection of U.S. Highways 20 and 63.
He is currently marketing the property for potential development with an eye on retail and commercial uses.
People are also reading…
“Our goal is to gradually bring all of the area out there up above the flood plain,” he said.
Youngblut said he still doesn’t have a prospective tenant for any of the former dog track property. But he said there is interest in property north of the track in the Greenbelt Centre business park, which Deer Creek has been developing since 2005.
There were no objections voiced before commissioners voted to support he special permit.
