Support your local businesses

Act now—your donation to local news ensures a brighter, more informed tomorrow. DECORAH — The Decorah City Council began its long-delayed review of the city's revised 2025 Sustainability Plan Monday night, with members highlighting key concerns about affordability, feasibility and equity as they worked through the comprehensive proposal from Decorah's Sustainability Commission. "This item here is meant to start the review process," City Manager Travis Goedken said during the meeting. The council had attempted to hold prior work sessions in June and July, but one was canceled and the other failed to meet quorum. The 38-page plan, unanimously approved by the Sustainability Commission in April, identifies 10 focus areas: energy, transportation, water, food systems, natural systems, zero waste, housing, equity and inclusion, public health, and civic engagement. It sets broad goals for city government and community partners while proposing timelines for dozens of potential actions, ranging from tracking municipal emissions to creating a green jobs task force. Council members generally supported the plan's direction but raised issues about the city's capacity to implement some of its more ambitious recommendations. Carbon neutrality by 2040: an aspirational but unclear pathAmong the plan's most prominent goals is the pledge for Decorah's municipal operations to reach carbon neutrality by 2040. Council members backed the ambition but said the roadmap remains unclear. "We should have regular updates from the commission on this," said Council Member Emily Neal. "If we're going to reach carbon neutrality by 2040, we're going to have to change some of the things that we do." The plan calls for conducting a greenhouse gas inventory, tracking progress annually, and reducing city fleet emissions through fuel switching and route optimization. But council members noted that implementation details and cost estimates are limited. Stormwater fee reform and water qualityThe plan's call to "restructure stormwater utility fees to be more equitable" sparked strong interest. Council Members Neal and Steve Zittergruen advocated for upgrading the item from Priority 2 to Priority 1 status, citing disproportionate burdens placed on homeowners under the current flat-rate system. Neal noted another reason: "We are no longer allowed to require stormwater management beyond what the state says. This could be a way we could encourage better practices." "I think there has been a desire to 'right-size' that to make sure that people's stormwater fees are proportionate to the stormwater that leaves their site… and changing the fees to more appropriately reflect the use is a first step," Zittergruen said. The plan also emphasizes watershed protection, nitrate mitigation and green infrastructure, topics that resonated with Council Member Kirsten Olson, who noted the city's groundwater recharge time is just 10 days for some wells. "We have very little time to react [to contamination]," he said, urging outreach to upstream stakeholders. "The nitrate levels have been increasing." Sidewalk maintenance, transportation and walkabilityThe plan recommends exploring "assumption of sidewalk construction/maintenance by the city" to increase accessibility. That sparked resistance from multiple council members. "My understanding is that the sustainability transportation group wants the owners of city sidewalks to go to the city... I don't even know how that is feasible or desirable for the staff that we have," Neal said, calling the suggestion "just not realistic." Goedken emphasized that current policy keeps sidewalk maintenance the responsibility of adjacent property owners. Council members broadly supported proposals to expand safe routes to school, bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and Complete Streets planning. But Zittergruen cautioned that walkability must be coupled with smart growth. "You can have the most beautiful Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings," he said, "but if it's sprawled out into farmland and wilderness, and everyone needs to drive everywhere and have parking, that's going to be expensive for our city, and that's an unsustainable future." Communications and civic engagement: Low-cost first stepsCouncil members considered several proposals to improve city communication, including an issue-reporting app, a newsletter or a sustainability dashboard. Most backed low-cost alternatives, like a centralized email system. Zittergruen suggested creating an email address like issue@decorahiowa.gov that the public could use to report concerns. "We don't see everything that goes wrong, and we appreciate when the community can help us draw attention," he said. Goedken warned that if the system became "as simple as taking a picture without having to preload any information," where someone submitting a complaint doesn't have to say what the issue is or where it's at and doesn't have to speak to anyone or type in their email address, "you'll end up with pictures of horse crap on a trail that say, 'What are you going to do about this?'" Goedken cited an incident where a concerned citizen reported an issue with electric scooters being used on bike trails via a "bit of an incendiary email," but when city staff attempted to reach back out to them with comments, staff quickly realized that the email had been sent from a spoofed email address, leaving no possible way to respond. Housing, equity and volunteer coordinationWhile the plan highlights affordable housing and rental assistance as key goals, the council focused more on zoning and density tools to address the housing shortage. "We keep acting like housing isn't the emergency that it is," Zittergruen said, urging alignment with planning and zoning tools that support infill development. The plan also calls for developing "volunteer coordination capacity" to support sustainability efforts. Goedken was skeptical, noting existing efforts by groups like RSVP and the challenges of city-led coordination. "We're not equipped to do that if it's across all the boards," he said. Mixed views on wellness center proposalThe council roundly questioned a Priority 1 item to "develop a community wellness center with indoor recreation." While the plan links this to health and community cohesion, council members saw it as a potential overreach. "We already have excellent parks and trail systems. A wellness center would be a distraction of focus," Neal said, recommending that the item be downgraded or removed. Plan as framework, not mandateGoedken reminded the council that the sustainability plan is "not legally binding" but would become a "quasi-policy document" that guides future decisions once adopted. "If there are items in here that you don't agree with, please make sure you bring it up now," he said. "That's what staff is going to be attempting to adhere to." Council Member Cody Whittle said the scale of the plan was appropriate, given what's at stake. "I know there are things that are overwhelming," he said, "but they're overwhelming because they weren't taken seriously 20 years ago by the general public." Feed your curiosity! Subscribe to the free newsletter and indulge in all that's local. Your friends will be impressed.

Support your local businesses

Decorah City Council Begins Detailed Review of 2025 Sustainability Plan