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FAIRFIELD – Work has officially begun on the Sunrise Trail Subdivision on the south side of Fairfield.

Grow Fairfield hosted a groundbreaking for its 53-acre subdivision on June 10. The organization announced this subdivision back in August of 2023, and has spent the last two years doing all the work behind the scenes before dirt could be moved in the summer of 2025.

The plan is to develop the land in three phases. The first phase will consist of creating 33 lots just south of the Cambridge Little Achievers Center on Libertyville Road. The lots will be about 60 feet by 120 feet. Phase I will consist of a loop, with a few lots set aside in the center of the loop for green space.

Grow Fairfield partnered with the childcare center to build a new 40-car parking lot on its south side. This was completed as part of a land swap between the two entities, since the original plan for the childcare center’s parking lot was to build it west of the building, but that space is now needed for the access road into the subdivision.

Just moments before the June 10 groundbreaking ceremony on the subdivision, the childcare center hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of the paved parking lot. The director of the childcare center, Tiffany Finch, said the new parking lot is a welcome addition, because parking has been a problem ever since the center opened in January 2023.

“I knew it right away when I looked at the blueprints that this could be an issue,” said Finch, who added that on some days she can have as many as 40 staff working. She also mentioned that the childcare center reached capacity this summer, hosting 180 children.

Grow Fairfield Executive Director Ed Malloy said it was fitting that the two ceremonies were held on the same day, because access to childcare and housing are the top two issues that employers report are necessary to attract and retain workers.

“The childcare project and the new housing initiatives are an active and engaged response to those priorities,” Malloy said. “Every Iowa community faces the same issues, and Fairfield is ahead of the curve I believe.”

Malloy noted that the subdivision was not yet within Fairfield city limits as of June 2025, but that Grow Fairfield had started the ball rolling on having the property annexed into the city, as well as establishing an urban renewal district for it. An application is in process to create an urban renewal district, which is a prerequisite to using tax increment financing.

One big piece of news that dropped over the summer was that Grow Fairfield had acquired 18 more acres of land immediately west of the subdivision, which will now become part of the subdivision and could be developed in the next 10 years. Grow Fairfield had planned to develop the original 35 acres in three phases, creating 33 lots in the first phase and 70 total. Lots in Phase I will likely be single-family units since there is high demand for those, and Malloy expects to be selling lots later this year. Grow Fairfield officials will keep their finger on the pulse of the housing market when deciding whether to add more single-family homes in the later phases, or focus more on multi-family developments or larger lots.

This new development will be the largest single-family development the city has been involved with in a quarter of a century, dating back to the development of Park Place Subdivision on the southwest part of town that started in the 1990s. The Sunrise Trail Subdivision will have curb and gutter, sidewalks, and water and sewer connections.

Malloy said Grow Fairfield is open to people who want to do a custom build with their own builder. Grow Fairfield might even build a model home to show off what’s possible.

“We want to provide every opportunity for local builders and contractors to build in the subdivision,” Malloy said.

Malloy said he hopes that Grow Fairfield can sell all the lots in the first phase within three years, and to have homes built on them within five years.

“We’re excited because we believe the homes that will be built in this subdivision really hit a lot of the demand that our employers have told us we don’t have in our housing stock,” Malloy said.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com