There was a Hastings Planning Commission meeting on March 23, 2026, at Hastings City Hall.
After an approval of minutes, there was a public hearing for the preliminary and final plat for the Sunset Hills Development, located northwest of 15th Street and O’Connell Drive. The preliminary plat is for a 26-lot single-family subdivision. The final plat in the first phase of the development will include 14 of the 26 platted lots. The 26 lots were rezoned from A to R-3.
During the public meeting for Sunset Hills, concerns were raised about traffic, housing development density, future parks, the value of homes, and the effect on water pressure.
The commissioners approved the separate motions for the preliminary plat and the final plat, adding a stipulation to have the water pressure issue be examined by a city engineer.
At the Planning Commission meeting, KDWA connected with a resident who expressed her concerns.
“Originally, the plan for the 2040 Comprehensive Plan was to have a low-density residence with 41 homes, and eight exits through 15th Street. Currently the plan is to extend 14th Street to, we assume, all the way to Jacob. It’s impacting traffic. There’s a lot of kids around in that neighborhood. Now it’s moving to small properties. We’ve got large properties right next to it. The average size of home is for the new homes they’re building are on single slabs for some of them, and we’re at 1800 square feet. The current homes in Sunset West are 25oo to 3000 square foot. It doesn’t fit the esthetics of our area, and we have water pressure issues. There’s times where we’ve talked to the cities because we’ve had water stop completely in our house. I did get some answers that I didn’t have before, but I feel like there’s still a lot of unanswered questions. Without doing a traffic study extending 14th street all the way west with this large expansion planning, we don’t know what to expect as it goes further west, and if they’re going to continue to change plans. There is no park on the west side of General Sieben at all, at this time. These kids have to cross. They go either to the park off Northridge, Walden Park, or they don’t have a park. So, they’re in the streets, and the opportunities that are for danger is high, so I think they need a park on the west side.”
This resident also wants the public to know we love the city of Hastings.
“We love that small town feel we’d love to keep that esthetics of happening and keeping the developments within reason and esthetically approving for this town of Hastings.”
Nick Jablonske, of Greg J. Homes, shared with KDWA an overview of the Sunset Hills Development.
“I’m Nick with Greg J homes. We are building a luxury villa project north of 15th Street and West of General Sieben Drive, and it is going to be aimed at providing single level living for Hastings, and it’s going to be a nice development with a lot of open space and a lot of very attractive things.”
Jablonske pointed out that these homes are not starter homes and have a starting price of $500,000. Nick addresses some concerns from the public hearing and offers a timeline for development.
“This is defined as a low-density development. So there’s not any there’s not any concerns from a city level about traffic or traffic levels. We’re not going to be adding any through congestion, because this is a cul de sac. It’s not going to generate any more traffic than what’s directly in it, but this development was always designed to be there. It’s been in the works for a very long time. We are looking for development this year. So, we are looking to put in the streets and do the grading this year, and hopefully we will be ready for construction either this fall or first thing next year.”
Community Development Director, John Hinzman, speaks into the next action steps for the Sunset Hills development.
“We’ve got a rezoning, and then we’ve got the plat itself. So, the rezoning requires two meetings at the city council. What’s going to happen on April 6 is we’re going to have the first reading of the rezoning on there. It’s generally a consent agenda item, and we won’t be talking about the plat or development, and then that would all come forward on the 20th of April.”
KDWA will have more on this report in future broadcasts.
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