(Spirit Lake)—Discussion over whether or not the city should allow the third phase of the Southern Hills residential development move forward drew some controversy at Tuesday’s Spirit Lake city council meeting. Discussion centered on finances the city would need to come up with to extend infrastructure to the area. One councilman, Jerry Harbst, expressed concern over the city taking on additional debt right now. He also questioned the need for the additional lots in a new development…(click here for comment.)
“There’s still a lot of lots for sale in this town, and I don’t think we’re quite ready to move forward with this yet. We’ve got a lot of things tied to the money we’re going to borrow and we could end up having to raise the tax levy on a lot of things to pay for this and I don’t we’re ready for that. Not with the number of lots that are still available in this town.”
Mayor Blaine Andera said the city may have no other choice but to move forward, saying the threshold for the next phase of the development to move forward has been met…(click here for comment.) “The threshold was for after 30 lots the next phase was supposed to be started and there’s 42 that’s been sold now.”
Councilman Clyde Ihrke said the need for additional housing in the city is very real. He then made a motion to proceed with the next phase of the development. Councilman Jeff Thee seconded the motion, which wound up being defeated on a two-to-three vote with Harbst, Kevin Bice and John Chappas voting against it.
