Highlands Residential Services Approved Buffalo Valley Master Plan

Highlands Residential Services approved the Buffalo Valley Master Plan at its meeting Thursday afternoon.

The 69-acre site is set to include approximately 224 units near Cane Creek Elementary. Director of Operations Chris Cassetty said that there is still flexibility with the plan.

“It might not look exactly like that in another five or ten years is what I’m saying,” Cassetty said. “There’ll be other apartments, this number will probably be approximately correct, but we might find that this particular building people might like it better, it might be easier to rent, so we’ll build more of those.”

Cassetty said that the only thing locked in for the plan are the developments of Oak Tree Towers and Hickory Valley. Executive Director Dow Harris said that the current designs estimate about five phases of development.

The plan also outlines the potential for site amenities, including interconnected plays areas and “parks” through the use of sidewalks and trails. As of now, the preliminary projected cost is some $3.3 million.

Harris said that the only thing still pending are some issues with utilities, which is one of the only unknowns cost-wise. Cassetty said the issue was specifically with sewer and a pump station situation.

“Originally we went to the city and we said, ‘Look okay we know this, so we’ll build it and you guys take it over and maintain it,’ And that’s pretty standard with developers,” Cassetty said. “And the city said okay and they came back and said, ‘Look if you guys are going to do all this building let’s build the system to handle everything you think you’re going to do, and we may as well put Cane Creek school on it too.’ And in the end, we’re okay with that. And the more they’ve looked at it the best place to build the pump itself is on school property. They already have one on their property, but a bigger one. So we’re in the process of city, school board, and Scott Nichelson as our engineer.”

Harris said that the city really got involved to look at the future growth of the area and fix it without having to come back and do it over.