The city of Granger has created a North Urban Renewal Plan with a vision of building a recreation and park complex, City Administrator Kirk Bjorland said.

The City Council approved the designation at its meeting last week, and Bjorland said it’s just the latest step the city is taking as it prepares for the growth it sees coming from the western suburbs of the Des Moines metro.

“We’re seeing the development,” he said. “It’s queuing up similarly as it has all around the suburbs of the metro. We know the growth is coming. We’re seeing significant interest from developers.”

The designation allows the city to create financing packages to help with the development of a facility, Bjorland said.

With several housing, commercial and industrial projects in the works, the city is “undersized in our recreation and parks facilities,” he said.

“We know that we’re early and we know that we’re not going to do anything too over the top,” Bjorland said. “Granger’s in a really good position financially. We’re going to focus on economic development, but we want the tools in place so when the time is right,” the city can move ahead with the development.

He said Granger is looking at what other metro communities are doing and how they are partnering with other groups or corporations on their recreation complexes. Granger is looking most closely at what Norwalk is doing for its facility and the ability to offer flexible field setups for baseball, softball, soccer and flag football, Bjorland said.

“There’s two things that we’re looking at accomplishing: How do you meet the needs of the community rec programs, but then how do you also use it as supporting the overflow of what the Des Moines metro brings? Would we be in a position to use that as some type of economic development to where you have travel teams and tournaments come in?

“We’re not putting those plans together yet, but we’re having those discussions to say how do we embrace the future,” Bjorland said.

To prepare, the city purchased 26 acres of land north of where the Woodward-Granger Community School District plans to build a new junior high on the northern edge of the town of just over 2,000 people. Directly west of the site is about 500 acres where mixed-use development and a business park are planned.

It’s all included in the city’s new comprehensive plan that was approved last month.

Bjorland said it was important to designate the 26 acres as a site for a possible recreation complex as it plans for future growth.

“If you don’t do this type of planning, the next thing you know you need it and you can’t get the land,” he said.

The 26 acres is larger than what the city would need for a recreation complex, so the city would also look at incorporating some retail along one side just north of where the new school will go, Bjorland said.

“We’re in the real early dreaming stages, but we’re trying to position the community so that we can embrace that growth and do our growth strategically,” he said.