The old Waterloo-Cedar Falls sibling rivalry may be bubbling up again, this time over a 38-acre farm along the Waterloo-Cedar Falls border in the north part of the metro area.

Cedar Falls Mayor Jon Crews has formally asked the Waterloo City Council to vote at its "next convenient" meeting to sever the property along Leversee Road from its city limits so the land can be annexed into Cedar Falls as an industrial park.

Waterloo Mayor Tim Hurley, hoping to avoid a public flap over the land, said the matter won't be placed before his council any time soon.

"I did signal to them that I was not about to put that on an agenda for a voluntary severance at this point," Hurley said. "I think this is a topic that needs discussion outside the public arena."

While Crews, in a four-page request letter, acknowledged the issue "has caused some concern" among Waterloo city leaders, he said Cedar Falls was in better position to develop the land, which would be good for the entire metropolitan area.

"Cedar Falls' action is in no way intended to thwart or inhibit economic growth in the city of Waterloo," Crews said. "Conversely, it is hoped that a new Cedar Falls Industrial Park on the west side of the airport will stimulate private sector industrial development within Cedar Falls and Waterloo that will benefit both cities, the Waterloo (Regional) Airport and the entire Cedar Valley."

Hurley said simply, "We don't share the same view as they do."

In the spirit of former Waterloo Mayor Leo Rooff, we hope the situation doesn't fester into a drawn-out public squabble.

Rooff, who passed away in early 2004, was an early and vocal proponent of metro-area cooperation. He's chiefly remembered for his interstate highway "substitution" plan in the 1980s, which substituted a single metro-area freeway, mainly through Waterloo, for a totally revamped metro highway system.

That system has brought tremendous economic success to the entire metro area. No one has benefited more from it than the city of Cedar Falls with the phenomenal growth of its industrial park, enhanced by the improved highway access.

The Cedar Falls City Council voted 6-1 July 23 to acquire the land from private owners for $350,000, subject to the property being annexed into Cedar Falls. Crews said Cedar Falls was contacted by the owners after the city of Waterloo declined to offer them the appraised value for the land.

Cedar Falls believes the land can be voluntarily severed from Waterloo by a resolution of the City Council. Should that not occur, the property owners could seek involuntary de-annexation, which could require a public referendum where Waterloo voters, at the city's expense, decide whether to allow the severance.

The city of Cedar Falls has been hoping to develop an industrial park on the north side of the city to take advantage of the Lone Tree Road interchange on U.S. Highway 218 and built considerable infrastructure around it. It's been discussed for 20 years -- ever since the Lone Tree/218 interchange was conceived as part of Mayor Rooff's highway substitution plan.

However, Waterloo has discussed creating an industrial park on the land surrounding and including the property. It was the city of Waterloo's proposed location for the Target Distribution Center, which eventually settled on a location in the Cedar Falls Industrial Park at Hudson and Viking roads.

"We have the same desires for it," Hurley said. "We might have a need for that land someday. We own everything around it."

Crews said Cedar Falls is willing to consider other options, such as leaving the property in Waterloo but directing taxes to Cedar Falls to pay for infrastructure investment, or swapping land.

The metro-area cooperation from the Leo Rooff era sowed the seeds for more recent initiatives, such as the creation of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance, the merging of the Waterloo and Cedar Falls chambers of commerce, and, indeed, the coining of the phrase "Cedar Valley" itself

We are hopeful and confident this land matter can be resolved. There is precedent for some kind of joint venture, as evidenced by the John Deere Product Engineering Center, which is in Cedar Falls but is served by infrastructure from both cities.

Both cities should draw from the groundwork of two decades of cooperation to develop this area for the benefit of us all.