Helena residents raise concern over new proposed development plan

SHELBY, County — Helena is a city of about 17,000 people, and some of those citizens say enough! They say traffic already is bad and they worry about what even more housing would do.

Their complaints didn't fall on deaf ears. The city and the developers have a new plan to present.

Developers want to put up more than 200 houses in the Valley Creek area on Highway 13. People who live nearby say roads and schools already are at capacity.

“As you can see from this road, we are on a single lane road and it’s the only way in and out of this area, another 450-500 cars this road cannot support that never mind the rest of the roads in Helena.” -- Neil Horn, Helena Resident

Developers say people "Want" to move to Helena

“The numbers don’t lie. The builders want to build here because the people want to move here and it’s because of the town and the schools and those things. Just a few short years ago we didn’t even have this high school and the reason we do is because of the growth.” -- R. J. Adams, Developer

Many people in the valley creek area use well water which raises another concern about the construction.

“This part of 13 is probably 2 maybe 3 miles away from city water and the city has said they are not putting city water out in this area so all of this area which is the lowest part of the surrounding area is going to be draining from the water table that we use for our wells.” said Horn

Developers have come up with a new plan where there will be more land between houses.

“We have worked with the mayor, we’ve worked with members of the community, listened to everybody’s concerns, and we’ve come back with a new plan where its probably the largest lots on average of any recent plan in the city that I can think of." said Adams

The next public meeting to consider the changes will be February 20th at city hall.

It starts at 6 pm.