An indoor turf facility is planned for Sioux Center and changes are ahead for the community’s Heritage Village.
The City Council approved the construction of an indoor turf dome at Open Space Park, east of the existing All Seasons Center parking lot. The approximately 250-by-450-foot air-inflated structure could be completed by the winter of 2022. Council members discussed benefits for recreation, health, athletics, and community events.
“This is another piece, in different times of the year, that is going to bring people to town, and that benefits our businesses, and those businesses pay taxes and create jobs,” said Councilman Eric Moerman. “To me it’s another piece that Sioux Center is going to provide it’s citizens. It becomes a hub.”
As part of this master planning discussion, the council also approved moving Heritage Village from Open Space Park to an approximately 5-acre site at the Tower Fields park in central Sioux Center.
“The community values Heritage Village; they value the work of the volunteers; and, what I heard, is they values the experiences they have there, not just a physical space,” Mayor David Krahling said. “Heritage Village is a collection of buildings, and I appreciate the trees, but the magic of Heritage Village is not just in those structures. It is in the experience people have when they go there. And I do believe that experience is portable.”
Larry Te Grotenhuis, chairman of the Heritage Board, noted that, at Heritage Village’s current location, there is not opportunity to grow.
“As the Heritage board and as stewards of a $1.5 million estate, it would not be in our best interest to share a site with a large, large dome, especially with all of the future development sites around it,” he said.
Den Herder asked planners to make every effort to preserve as many trees as possible.
Moerman said the community’s value of Heritage Village is “almost universal,” and Sioux Center needs to continue to value its history.
“I hope that moving to Tower Fields would allow Heritage Village to grow and be better than it is today,” Moerman said. “I feel for the financial piece, the moving and setting up, the city needs to bear a good portion of that obligation. We’re asking them to move. There have been tons of volunteer hours.”
It is anticipated that the moving process would begin later in 2021 and potentially be a multi-year process.
The council’s decision followed nearly a year of discussion and master planning with stakeholders including Dordt University, Sioux Center schools, the Heritage Village Board and the Parks Board, as well as gathering public feedback at an open house and via a survey. Earlier, in the 2018 Community Survey, respondents selected “indoor recreation options” as the top way Sioux Center should focus recreation investments.
The City will partner with Dordt University on constructing the turf facility.