Iola is one step closer to having more housing options. Over the next week, the City of Iola will complete finishing touches to the Cedarbrook third addition project.
“The project went very well with the contractors,” said Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock Monday morning.
He added the project’s location was an added benefit. “There wasn’t a lot of traffic for the contractors to deal with, so it went smoothly.”
The new housing development contains 22 residential lots. The City of Iola sold the lots to Lakeview Investment Properties owned by Jennifer Chester and son Blake Boone in an effort to address the community’s housing shortage.
On Monday, Boone noted that a date hasn’t been decided for when construction will begin on the lots.
“We’re continuing to meet and move the project along,” he said. “We don’t have a date set in stone yet.”
Prior to the sale of the property in November 2023, the city invested $1.7 million to extend utilities to 16 of the 22 lots. Chester and Boone paid $1,000 for each of the 22 lots, and will pay an additional $6,500 for each of the 16 serviced lots as they sell. The six other non-serviced lots are located where the subdivision turns back to the northeast. Chester and Boone will be responsible for the cost of infrastructure extension to these additional lots.
The developers had previously stated they’d like to build three houses a year in the new addition. The city has given them 10 years to develop the lots, or the land will revert back to the city.
“We’re pretty much done until the developer starts building houses,” said Schinstock. “All the contractor has left to do is tilling and seeding.”
The city will set up transformers over the next week. Each transformer will serve two houses with electricity.
