Tuesday night’s meeting of the Marshall City Council was the second consecutive session where public comment focused heavily on the status of a housing subdivision proposed in the western part of the city.

11 residents addressed the council, asking for the city to make it less difficult to build housing developments in Marshall. Most of the comments focused on The Meadows at Harvest Creek, a proposed subdivision on West Vest Street that could bring over 100 new homes to the city. Several realtors, including Amelia Lanmon, argued that the lack of available housing is holding back the city’s growth.

Some of Lanmon’s comments were in response to comments made earlier in the meeting by Pastor Cliff Cato, who said that Marshall should focus on encouraging construction of houses at the price level current residents can afford.

A number of citizen comments expressed disappointment over what they called a lack of timely response from city leaders on issues raised, including a call to list the subdivision as an agenda item. The subdivision’s developer Mark Rowden, who is based in Waynesville, addressed the council after he was invited to the podium by second ward councilman Jim Papreck. We’ve posted the video of Tuesday night’s meeting below:

After the public comment period, the council quickly took up their three agenda items, accepting the bid from Exchange Bank for banking and depository services, as well as adopting on second reading the next fiscal year’s budget for both the city and the Board of Public Works. The city council will meet in special session Sept. 30 at 11:45 a.m. to formally close the books on the current fiscal year.