Fifty-three residents of Charles City, Iowa jammed into city hall on March 29, 2011 to be briefed on research conducted this school year by second-year master’s students Andrew Kass, Travis Kleinschmidt, Michael Palermo, Tabatha Ries-Miller, and Alex Rude, assisted by undergraduate Political Science major Jacob Tjaden.  As part of Urban and Regional Planning’s Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, the students have spent the year developing recommendations for marketing and programming Charles City’s soon to be completed Riverfront Park, which features a kayak course on the Cedar River.  Planning students are also assisting the city by collecting valuable information on water trading, which is a new method for improving the quality of water.  Planning students are using the information and ideas generated at the public meeting to prepare their final report to Charles City.