Prairieland Partners, Iola’s John Deere dealership, plans to build a new facility along U.S. 169 at the northeast edge of town.
Iola and Allen County officials gave their stamps of approval Monday and Tuesday, respectively, clearing the way for the city to annex more than 105 acres of property owned by Sally Huskey at the northwest corner of U.S. 169 and Oregon Road.
The Prairieland Partners dealership will build on a 25-acre parcel of that land, Iola City Administrator Matt Rehder said.
Iola City Council members approved a resolution Monday supporting the annexation, which then was approved Tuesday morning by county commissioners.
The final domino was a Tuesday afternoon vote for Iola council members to accept the ordinance to complete the annexation. 
As required by state statute and city codes, the land will initially be zoned as residential-single family, with the process of rezoning the land as commercial to begin almost immediately.
A new facility will allow Prairieland Partners to expand, store manager Dale Lalman said after Monday’s Council meeting.
“It’ll be a much bigger facility,” Lalman said. “We’ve outgrown this facility (on North State Street) for a long time. This will allow us to continue to improve our precision ag capabilities, plus we’ll have a bigger shop.”
A larger shop will allow Prairieland to expand from 14 full-time technicians to 20, Lalman said.
IN A SEPARATE matter, Iola Council members approved a request from Fugate Enterprises to split its commercial property in the 1600 block of North State Street into three separate properties for Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and the old Hibbett Sports buildings.
Typically, lot splits can be handled administratively, Code Enforcement Officer Gregg Hutton explained, but only if they’re split into two separate lots.
Splitting it into three requires a plat change.
The key consideration is to ensure all three properties have access to nearby Patterson Avenue and State Street, Hutton said. The proposed plat change ensures that access.
“This is possibly the easiest plat change possible,” Hutton said.
