The Adel City Council convened Tuesday evening in regular session.

The meeting began with two public hearings that blended together. The first was an amendment to the Southbridge Planned Urban Development to shift the south boundary further south, in order to make the through road more accessible from Highway 169. The amendment would add 8.74 acres to the PUD. The second hearing was regarding a rezone of the entire PUD area from A-1 (agricultural district) to R-1 (residential, high density). Many from the public spoke out against the plans, in particular the rezone request, citing concerns with safety, infrastructure, and too much growth too fast.

Following the hearings, the Council took action on both items, approving the first reading of the amendment to the PUD, and rejecting the rezone request. As the rezone was denied by the Planning and Zoning Commission, a supermajority of four votes to one was needed to pass, and it only received three “aye” votes. One final item related to Southbridge was setting a public hearing for May 14th to consider rezoning a specific portion of the land from A-1 to R-1, as opposed to the whole area.

Other items discussed and approved during the meeting included: the preliminary plat for Sargent’s Second Addition; a water leak credit policy; ordering construction and fixing a date to receive bids for the new water treatment plant; authorizing an interfund loan for the land purchase adjacent to Evans Park; a change order and pay estimate for the east annex sewer project; and an engagement agreement with Ahlers and Cooney, and ordering construction and fixing a bid date for the City Hall window project.