The Iowa Court of Appeals Wednesday heard arguments in a lawsuit over a chain link fence obstructing a bike pathway in Riverdale.
A district court judge in 2020 ruled in favor of the city, which constructed the fence. The filers of the suit, the Quad Cities Bicycle Club and Cornbelt Running Club, claim the fence to be a nuisance and took the ruling to the appellate court for an appeal.
The decision on whether the chain link fence is considered to be legally a nuisance all comes down to what the court will deem the slab of concrete it obstructs.
The slab was once used by pedestrians and cyclists to connect the Duck Creek and Mississippi River Trails on South Kensington Road. The fence that now obstructs that connection was constructed in June 2020 by the city after residents of Haven’s Acres neighborhood, where the connector is located, complained that cyclists were causing problems.