(Clarinda) -- Clarinda city officials have landed on a name for a new business park on the south side of town.
During its regular meeting Wednesday, the Clarinda City Council, by a 4-0 vote, approved designating the area as the "Clarinda Landing Industrial Park." The new business park will be accessible from South 14th Street near Smith Vending and extend west and south toward U.S. Highway 71. The council approved a loan agreement to purchase the nearly 21 acres of farmland earlier this year. Clarinda Mayor Craig Hill says naming the business park now allows the Clarinda Economic Development Corporation to begin marketing the land to potential businesses.
"We put it to economic development to come up with some type of name and they would like us to approve something so they can go ahead and start promoting the area," said Hill. "The name that economic development came up with, and again this is a discussion and you guys can approve or disapprove any name that you want, they came up with 'Clarinda Landing.'"
The council approved the $320,000 lump sum purchase from Mia and Wendell Woldruff with $175,000 upfront and a general fund loan agreement not exceeding $145,000. Clarinda City Manager Gary McClarnon says there are several examples of potential names with multiple industrial parks in the southern parts of town.
"Where the Super 8 hotel and some of those businesses are at, that's the 'Clarinda Airport Commercial Park,' and then where HyVee and some of that area is, that was called 'Clarinda Industrial Development Corporation Plat Number One' and 'Plat Number Two," McClarnon explained. "Then, obviously the 'Allen Davison Business Park' was the last one we had. So, there's a few names there."
Hill says economic development officials also floated naming the district after an individual. But, the council chose to stick with "Clarinda Landing." Councilman Jeff McCall feels "Clarinda Landing" was the best option, to which other council members agreed.
"From that last meeting where we were trying to come up with a name, that was by far the best name that came out of the group," he said. "There was about 15 people there and nobody could come up with a good name and then all of a sudden someone said that and we were like, 'hey, that sounds pretty good' just because it's so close to the airport."
Previously, McClarnon said they plan to handle the business park differently from past areas as they won't survey and subdivide the land ahead of time. Councilwoman Kaley Neal was absent from Wednesday's meeting.
