The New Bohemia Group wants to put outdoor sand volleyball courts on the city-owned, former Iowa Iron Works property. (Gazette file photo)

Plans to open an outdoor venue for sandpit volleyball are moving ahead at city-owned property in New Bohemia that once was home to the Iowa Iron Works plant.

A City Council committee this week expressed support for the New Bohemia Group’s project, which has been in the planning stages for months and has garnered general City Hall backing along the way.

John Schnipkoweit, president of the New Bohemia Group, said this week that the plan calls for six sandpit volleyball courts on the property along 12th Avenue SE next to the former Quality Chef site that the NewBo City Market is planning to develop.

The city intends to lease the property for volleyball at a nominal fee for three years with a lease option year by year after that.

Schnipkoweit and members of the city’s Development Committee don’t want to lock the city into an extended lease in case a private developer wants to build on the site, both said this week.

The City Council isn’t expected to approve a development agreement until mid-September for the volleyball project, but Schnipkoweit said he still hoped there might be some volleyball played on the site in October.

Once up and running, the volleyball enterprise hopes to attract some 1,500 players a week to league play at the venue in a 26-week season that runs from April to October.

“We’ve been encouraged by the response of people who want to make this happen,” Schnipkoweit said this week. “We feel the demand for an outdoor team sport in the core of our city is huge.”

The volleyball setup will not serve beverages and food, other than with vending machines for beverages.

“We want to support the neighborhood businesses and will encourage our participants to visit the numerous choices already available,” Schnipkoweit said.

He thought the initial investment in the project — this is private funds, not city dollars — would be about $100,000, which will include pavement for a parking lot.

“We got lots of land just sitting there,” City Council member Monica Vernon, chairwoman of the city’s Development Committee, noted this week in expressing support for the volleyball project.

In winter, the site has been used to pile snow picked off city streets, and Vernon was assured by city staff that the city has other places to pile snow.

Dale Todd, president another neighborhood group, the Southside Investment Board, on Thursday said the “concept” of Schnipkoweit’s volleyball plan is a good one.

“Why not?” said Todd. “Until a more permanent use for the space is developed, this is a good use of the land. Everybody in the neighborhood has embraced the idea that the spot is prime for recreational use.”

That the spot is between two railroad tracks might make it difficult for other uses, Todd said.

The volleyball project has formal letters of support from Czech Village/NewBo Urban Main Street; NewBo Market; Cedar Rapids Downtown District; and the Thorland Co., which owns the neighboring Cherry Building, Schnipkoweit reported.