The city of Marion will unveil a plan Tuesday night to develop 'The Neighborhood at Indian Creek,' an area they say is lacking commercial development.
People are moving into Marion faster than they can keep up. City officials say around 600 people move to Marion each year, as the population is about 40,000.
The Neighborhood at the Indian Creek Project is for the area east of 35th and Tower Terrace, on the Northeast Side. It also includes the area where the Linn-Mar School District plans to build a new school.
People living in the neighborhood have to go across town to go shopping. With more houses being built and a school coming, leaders say it's going to be more pressure there for development.
They want the area to have restaurants, retail stores, and a park within walking distance. Right now, the spot is just a lot of farmland, so city officials hope farmers will agree to sell it to a developer.
They say developers have already shown interest, but not all landowners are on board.
"Certainly developing a plan like this and the school, that's going to put pressure on the landowners to sell for development, but certainly that's a private manner for the developer and the landowner,” said Community Development Director for the city of Marion Tom Treharne.
Jon Wood is the owner of Morris Wood Construction. He owns land in that area that he’ farmed on for the last decade.
He says the property of his land is rising, and he’s willing to sell it for the right price. “We're hoping to,” he said. “We've carried it for many years, and farming, it didn't pay for what we paid for it.”
The open house is from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Marion City Hall.