Cedar Rapids locals will soon have a renewed Cedar Lake Park to visit.
Close to the downtown area and visible from the well-trafficked I-380, the park has long been a fixture of Cedar Rapids, boasting a 1.6-mile trail loop and ample bluegill, bass, carpie and catfish catching opportunities — but it has suffered from old age. In 2018, Friends of Cedar Lake, a grassroots community dedicated to cleaning up and rejuvenating the area, teamed up with members of the Southside Investment Board, who hoped to build an urban biking trail across the Cedar River, forming the entity ConnectCR.
Their combined project is estimated to cost about $20 million, with $5.9 million from the City of Cedar Rapids, a $5 million grant from the Hall-Perrine Foundation and an ongoing capital campaign. Construction on Cedar Lake began in 2024 and is expected to finish later this year. Plans call for new walking trails, ADA-accessible docks for fishing and launching canoes and kayaks, floating islands, a playground and challenge course, and new park entrances.
Part of the revitalization includes preserving the wetlands on the north shore. Signs with information about the local wildlife (including deer, fox, mink, pelicans and turtles, according to ConnectCR) and plant species on the lake will be placed along walking trails. A bird-viewing platform will be built along the nature boardwalk.
Construction of a pedestrian walking/cycling bridge across the Cedar River began in April, and is projected to be complete in 2026. The 18-foot-wide Alliant Energy LightLine will help connect Czech Village with New Bohemia, replacing the CRANDIC railway bridge washed away in the 2008 flood. The new bridge will link up with the Cedar Lake Loop and the Mt. Trashmore trail and connect two sides of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, a 68-mile trail which runs all the way to the city of Waterloo. The LightLine also better connects Cedar Rapids to two coast-to-coast U.S. trails: the American Discovery Trail and the Great American Rail-Trail.
Cedar Lake wasn’t always so amenable to recreation. At the turn of the 20th century, the lake was rancid, with industrial and outhouse waste flowing into its stagnant waters and contributing to annual fish kills. That didn’t stop locals from spending time on its scenic shores, and advocating for improvements. The Cedar Rapids City Council eventually dedicated 20 acres on the lake to a park while clearing a stream dammed up by industrial materials, helping freshen the lake water.
But the building of residential neighborhoods in the 1940s and 1950s only contributed to the lake’s pollution. Houses were treated with a chemical called chlordane to prevent termite infestations, which may have seeped into the waters of the lake.
Over the years, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources monitored the health of the lake, fearing the fish might be contaminated and not fit for human consumption. But in 2015, Cedar Lake was taken off the endangered waters list, clearing the way for safe fishing and paddling.
In 2018, Alliant Energy — the descendant of electrical and railway companies that owned and operated turbines in the northern part of the lake — sold its ownership to the City of Cedar Rapids for $1, making way for ConnectCR’s project. The company also pledged $1 million to the new pedestrian bridge, earning naming rights.
Friends of Cedar Lake worried that stormwater runoff from the huge watershed would push soil into the lake and eventually make it shallower. For a solution to that problem, the group looked at the Easter Lake region in Des Moines — how cooperation between the city, county and IDOT resulted in sustainable long-term benefits. With a new watershed plan in place, ConnectCR and the City of Cedar Rapids hope water quality can gradually improve to become safely swimmable.
The group also had to take into consideration the fact that the Cedar River could flood again, as it did in 2008. The City of Cedar Rapids began building levees on Cedar Lake in 2021 as part of its flood control system, which should be finished this year.
Both the Cedar Lake Park and the LightLine pedestrian bridge projects are expected to debut in 2026.
