The City of Riverside has signed a letter of intent to negotiate with an Iowa City contractor for a 70-home housing development.

Washington Economic Development Group Executive Director Ed Raber says this is a unique opportunity, as Johnson County contractors have not spent much time developing in Washington County, “It’s a good thing to see that there is interest in doing some things in Washington County as Johnson County seeks affordable places that they can try to do housing of a variety of kinds. It’s very exciting for Riverside, which has not had a lot of residential development in the city limits in the last decade, that they’d be able to help create something that in the next few years could potentially result in quite a lot of new home construction.”

Raber suggests patience to those anticipating this development, “None of this happens quickly but the fact that both sides are committed to negotiating and working with each other to come to an agreement, I think is fabulous.”

The Riverside City Council has a work session to negotiate a developer agreement with APEX Construction on January 8 at 5:30 p.m.