The Indianola City Council discussed the Kentucky Ridge Development project, regarding sanitary sewer and storm sewer replacement with the developers of the land at their meeting Monday, with the issue of funding the project from the city side leading to a disagreement at the meeting regarding the city putting forth dollars for stormwater drainage, which is generally at the cost of the developer.

The proposed development was approved by council to begin planning, and includes 50 townhomes and a proposed future park of .19 acres located at 1100 N Jefferson Way.

City Manager Ben Reeves tells KNIA News the biggest issue is a ravine where both storm and sanitary sewer lines are installed, and in order for the land to be developable those lines would have to be buried, and the city doesn’t want to have to dig up the lines in the future when they need replacing.

“In order to take care of the topographical issues of the land and make it so that it’s more developable, dirt needs to be brought in on top of that line. That line, if it’s going to have dirt on top of it, has to be at a certain level or a certain standard. So we just don’t want to put in all sorts of improvements over an old line. If we are going to be changing the overall topography of the land, we want to make sure a new line has been put in and the materials of that line are as such that it can sustain the pressure of the earth that is put above it.”

Reeves also said if the city does it in the way that would make the land the most developable, it would come at a significant up-front cost to the rest of the city taxpayers, and they are trying to find a way to balance the economic benefits from the land being developed compared to taxpayer money.

Hear more on today’s Let’s Talk Indianola with City Manager Ben Reeves about the future options for the city.