State Board may decide on new city next month

The Fairfield Ledger/November 16, 2000
By Beth Dalbey

Petitioners for a new city asked the City Development Board to act in December on their petition so they can meet a March 15 budget-certification deadline, but other speakers at the more than four-hour-long hearing urged caution.

For more than four hours Wednesday, the state City Development Board heard arguments for and against the incorporation of Vedic City north of Fairfield.

A decision on whether to move the petition to the electorate in the 654-acre area proposed for incorporation is expected at a Dec. 14 City Development Board meeting to be held in Des Moines. A decision in December would allow the petitioners to certify a budget by the March 15 deadline imposed by the Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance.

Several speakers encouraged the board to move slowly. "A sound philosophy is to hope for the best and plan for the worst," said Fairfield city attorney John Morrissey. The petitioners for a new city, he said, "plan for the best."

"We don't have enough information," he said. "I don't know if it's a good idea or a bad idea. I don't see any need to fast-track incorporation of Vedic City."

With an affirmative vote of both the City Development Board and the qualified voters in the area proposed for incorporation, Vedic City would become both the first new city incorporated in Iowa since 1982 and the first community in the United States developed entirely according to the principles of Sthapatya Veda, an ancient architectural style resurrected by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi based on the premise that health, happiness and fortune are influenced by the orientation of buildings and other aspects of construction.