“Corteva Agriscience, which was previously Pioneer Hybrid Seed Corn Company, has been around for a hundred years,” she notes.“They’re a very important employer in our community, not only in terms of the number of employees that they hire, but also their footprint in the community and the fact that they draw in talent from all over the world to work at this location.” PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH Johnston faces the same housing pressures affecting metro areas nationwide, prompting city leaders to balance growth with affordability while investing heavily in infrastructure. “Like any other city in the metro area, housing is an issue, and we recognize that it is,” Mayor Dierenfeld acknowledges. “We are going to undertake a housing study next year. We understand that’s an issue that we need to address.” Current development includes single-family homes and multifamily units, though not at the pace or price points needed for all income levels. Wilwerding describes Johnston’s relatively stable housing market compared to coastal volatility. “We have the fortune of not being on the coast of the United States here in the Midwest,” he observes. “While we’ll have the dips that you see in other places, the highs aren’t as high, and the lows aren’t as low.” He notes that even during national downturns, Johnston has maintained steady development. The city recently updated its approach to housing diversity through zoning reform. “In 2023, we did adopt an entirely new zoning ordinance,” Wilwerding explains. “One of the focuses was to look at what’s often termed the missing middle housing.” The changes aim to move beyond traditional suburban development patterns.“We really tried to make sure from a regulatory perspective we were removing the barriers to those different styles of housing,” he says. Infrastructure development supports this growth, with the northwest area receiving significant investment. 7 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 06 JOHNSTON, IA
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