Branching out at Arbor Valley Lake

Take Highway 34 West out past the Clarke County Fairgrounds, hang a left at 205th Street, then follow the road around to Idaho Place where you take the first available right. Soon, you’ll arrive at Vintner Homes at Arbor Valley Lake, the to-be gated, green housing development started by Bud Jones, JB Hamilton and Alan Lundquist in the early 2000s. According to project manager, Paula McClaflin, construction at the lake is finally starting to take off.

“We just started on the second house.” McClaflin said. “Next year, there’s three more houses going up.”

The progress is important as the city won’t pave the roads between the development and the rest of Osceola until the area has enough tax revenue to support upkeep. As it is technically within city limits, Arbor Valley Lake already has city water and sewer lines. There are also plans in the works to pave 205th and Idaho Place out to the development.

“The Arbor Valley road proposal is contingent upon cumulative property valuations,” said City Administrator Ty Wheeler. “There needs to be enough property developed in Arbor Valley to generate the property taxes necessary to fund a road project. That could come in the form of three huge homes, 10 smaller homes or something in between.”

Given the homes currently going up around the lake, paired with the improved value of lakeshore property, that could be sooner than later.

A project long in the making

“The first land for the project was purchased in 1996,” said McClaflin, who has seen the project overcome numerous hurdles. While two of the partners left the deal, she said, “Bud stayed with it. A lot of developers, when they have those kinds of costs, their development goes bankrupt. Ours has always had good leadership.”

Building a lake turned out to be a monumental challenge. McClaflin doesn’t think it’s a process you can really understand until it’s under way. For instance, the Arbor Valley Lake site is home to an endangered prairie orchid, a rare species of legless lizard and Indiana bats, all of which required special treatment.

“Iowa DNR, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife want to know what are you doing, and if you take a tree down, why did you do it,” said McClaflin. “Lets say you take an acre of trees out, so we had to put 30 acres of trees back. Then you have to monitor them for a period of five years.

“I think a lot of times the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. We were getting all of our guidance from the NRCS. When we finally got our permit to get work started and cleaned out all those scraggly corners, we found out we have all these other entities that we have to answer to,” said McClaflin, noting the expense of just the bat studies swelled from $8,000 the first year to $17,000. “We had some pretty stiff rules to go by, but we made it. We got all our permits.”

A natural berm surrounding the lake is both environmentally friendly and asthetically pleasing.

“The berm itself is kind of a big barrier all around the lake, but it has a flat top so you can walk around the lake. We have very, very clean water out here,” said McClaflin.

Clearing up confusion

In the late 90s, the Clarke County Reservoir Commission (CCRC) considered potential sites for building a future water source for Osceola. One involed three sites off of White Breast Creek. The other was the Squaw Creek Watershed. Based on evaluations from the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Iowa, the CCRC chose Squaw Creek and moved ahead with reservoir plans.

The Arbor Valley Lake developers intended to build an environmentally friendly, gated community with a spot for water recreation – and they did. The source water for the lake is a tributary that flows into White Breast Creek. However, the two projects are not related.

Adding to the confusion is a proposal made at a CCRC board meeting in February 2016 that Arbor Valley Lake – already under construction – be considered as a more affordable alternative to the reservoir plan. The suggestion aggravated the conflict between reservoir project supporters and landowners and muddled the details for people unfamiliar with both projects.

It was ultimately rejected due to earlier studies showing the Squaw Creek Watershed to be superior for drinking-quality water, but confusion remained.

“I’m not sure people really understand what the lake is,” said McClaflin. “Some people get upset they can’t fish there, but it’s a private lake. If you buy a lot, you can fish.”

Free land deal applies to Arbor Valley Lake

The new Zero-Cost Development initiative announced by the Clarke County Development Corporation (CCDC) in December should speed up progress at Arbor Valley Lake. The plan allows developers to pick up free lots within Osceola city limits, as well as have up to 12-month’s interest paid on their construction loans. According to Bill Trickey, CCDC executive director, residents intending to build a home can bring any eligible builder to the project.

“The individual would have to decide,” said Trickey. “Is the free lot better or is the tax abatement better?”

Arbor Valley Lake start at $59,900 and go up from there.

“Tax abatement is a five year abatement,” she said, “I think it would be worth it to take the lot.”

The proximity of the lake does impact home value – and taxes – as McClaflin found out while building her own home at the lake.

An emphasis on environmental living

Arbor Valley Lake was started initially as an environmentally friendly development, with a private lake designed for safe and noninvasive recreation and home plans requiring, among other things, geothermal heating and cooling systems.

“We had that as a requirement in 2003. Some of the homes being built out here come to the association and ask for that to be removed and replaced with ‘high efficiency.’ Now they’ve come out with better ways of having efficiency in your house,” said McClaflin.

Today, the lake has 43 lakeshore lots and 3 offshore lots. A home owner’s association is in place to maintain quality standards, and the area is abundant with local wildlife. Just 45 minutes from Des Moines, Arbor Valley Lake presents a rare opportunity for earth-conscious buyers. As well it should.

Says McClaflin, “We were building green before anyone else was.”