Gretchen Cooper and Melissa Perera talk about the 100th anniversary of Junior League of Sioux City.
SIOUX CITY — Goodwill of the Great Plains is asking the Sioux City Council to approve a rezoning request so that it can build a new adult day habilitation center and a maintenance building across the street from its campus, 3100 West Fourth St.
The 3.4-acre tract of land is currently zoned Neighborhood Conservation. Goodwill is requesting that the property be rezoned to General Commercial, which is intended for commercial, retail, service and office uses arranged on individual sites or in multi-tenant centers.
Briget Solomon, Goodwill of the Great Plains’ CEO, said Friday that the existing adult day habilitation program has been in operation for more than 20 years and has continued to grow.
“Right now, we’re utilizing as much space in our existing building as we can, kind of expanding into our cafeteria and other areas,” she said. “This building is envisioned as an opportunity to create a more modern facility for our adult day and stay habilitation programs and also allow us to expand our mission.”
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Solomon said the multi-use community center would include a gym, gaming room and spaces for programming, such as an arts and culture room. She said meeting rooms and office space for staff are also planned.
“We’re hoping to be able to do our Goodwill-sponsored events, such as our career fairs that we host through our job center. Our Christmas shoe and mitten party will be hosted in that location,” she said. “We just need more space to do all of those things and continue to carry out our mission.”
Solomon said building the adult day habilitation center is the focus of the project’s first phase. The maintenance building would be constructed during the second phase. That building would allow Goodwill of the Great Plains to expand job training opportunities and provide enclosed storage for its fleet vehicles.
The Sioux City Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously voted to approve the rezoning request at it’s Dec. 13 meeting, which advanced the item on to the council. City documents state that expansion of Goodwill’s campus is not expected to disrupt existing residential uses in the area. The site has been the subject of prior zoning requests for truck parking, which has not been supported at the site because of the proximity to residences and conflicts with the city’s comprehensive plan.
“City staff feels the current proposed use better suits the area,” the documents state.
Solomon said she hopes to open the new adult day habilitation center by the end of 2024 or early 2025. Since the project is still in its early stages, she said plans haven’t been finalized and the total cost is still being calculated. She expects those things to be finalized in the next couple of months.
“There’s a lot of pieces that have to fall in place to make that happen, but that’s our hope and our goal,” she said. “This year, 2023, is our 100th anniversary as a Goodwill and part of the Goodwill movement. It’s kind of neat to be launching something that’s going to be really significant for us to grow our mission programs.”
Based on preliminary data, Solomon said Goodwill of the Great Plains served more than 28,000 people in the region in 2022.
“We’re really proud of that growth. This is just going to help us catapult into future growth and opportunities to serve the community in a broader way, aligned with our mission, of course,” she said of the project. “It’s really exciting.”
