South Heart would need additional funds to move housing proposal forward

Talk about it

South Heart will need additional funding before it moves forward with a proposal for an 88-acre housing development that had a request for annexation declined by city council last week.

“We denied it because we don’t have the city services for it,” said Mayor Floyd Hurt. “If we had enough money for the water and sewer, we would have approved the annexation a long time ago.”

A public hearing was held about the annexation of the land southeast of the South Heart city limits, which is owned by Jim and Rosie Perdaems.

When contacted Thursday by The Dickinson Press, Rosie Perdaems said, “I am not going to comment at this time.”

None of the city councilman returned calls to The Dickinson Press.

According to the plan published in the newspaper prior to the meeting, the proposal would divide the land into sections and include single- and multi-family dwellings and an RV and mobile home park.

Several of the sections could be converted to single family or mobile home units, and there is also space for a city water tank and mini-storage, according to the plans.

“We would hate to annex the property without being able to offer services,” Hurt said. “They made a big investment in buying (the land), and then you feel bad that they have to sit on it. I just wish there was some way to hurry this along, so they can annex the land, get it zoned and get their plan moving.”

Hurt estimates that getting the proper infrastructure installed could cost South Heart more than $1 million.

He said the city is actively trying to secure grants to cover the cost, but Hurt could not say how soon the funds might be available.

“We haven’t started any engineering because we don’t want to waste the money until we get close to the amount of money that we need,” Hurt said. “It’s just an estimate, but it would probably take about four months or so to install the water and sewer.”

When the infrastructure is in place and the development gets the go ahead, Hurt believes it will benefit the city.

“It will bring more families here to live and push our tax base up,” he said.

Tags: south heart, news, local