Civic Campus

Waukee is planning for a future Civic Campus, which will be home to civic buildings, such as a City Hall and Library. It will also include public amenities, such as an event pavilion, trails, green spaces, lake and more. There is space for residential and commercial development. 

The City of Waukee purchased 220 acres for the future development and spent a year developing a vision for the neighborhood. Waukee City Council is expected to adopt the master plan at its meeting on March 17, 2025. The master plan is the high level vision of what this area could look like and what types of spaces it can include. Note that details of buildings and spaces could change as we progress to additional stage of planning for the design of city buildings, event spaces and amenities.

Where will it be?

The future campus is located along 6th Street and University Avenue. Today, it’s a field across from the Sugar Creek Municipal Golf Course and next to our Public Works building, but it will one day become an active, energetic neighborhood. As Waukee grows, this area is expected to become the geographic center of Waukee. 

What will it look like? 

Scroll down to see renderings of the concept developed in the initial stage of master planning. The concept includes space for a new City Hall, a library and a small business incubator space. It has many recreation spaces, including trails, a covered event pavilion, sport courts and room to expand the golf course to 18 holes. The large lake will handle storm water runoff for flood control and improved water quality as well as offering new recreation opportunities, such as kayaking and fishing. The proposed plan will include realigning 6th Street and extending 10th Street. Note that additional phases of planning will determine the details of exactly what these buildings and amenities look like. This initial master plan is the high level vision of how we can use the space within the development.

Surrounding the public spaces and amenities are opportunities to mix in housing and commercial spaces for dining, shopping and other services. This will keep the area active both in the daytime and the evenings all days of the week. The varied spaces will help foster a vibrant energy to draw people to the area and enable community connections. Selling land for commercial and residential development can generate revenue to help fund constructions of the adjoining public amenities.

What is the timeline?

We are just in the early stages of planning with the vision for what the campus can be. Full development will come to life over 20-30 years. In the next 2-4 years, the community can expect to see some work on infrastructure improvements, like roads and the lake. Buildings will likely come along in 7-10 years, depending on funding and planning. The proposed golf course expansion would likely be 12-15 years out.