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Regular Council Meeting <br />March 11, 2013 <br />Page 8 <br />there. He said most of the growth had been North and East and there wasn't a lot of shopping <br />choices in West Paris. Council Member Grossnickle also said selection of a school district was a <br />factor when someone was purchasing a home. Council Member Grossnickle said he thought <br />everyone in the county should have to share in the PJC taxes. Council Member Jenkins said he <br />was for growth, but that he needed more information. Council Member Lancaster said she <br />would very much like to see development in West Paris and they were losing businesses, because <br />they do not have the residences for growth. She said there needed to be residential development <br />in West Paris. Council Member Wright said he agreed with the mayor in that they needed to <br />have a committee to study and work out the potential problems. Council Member Frierson said <br />the basic premises was very well founded and more growth within the City would benefit <br />everyone. He said he agreed with Mr. Brown in as far as the intersection of the private sector <br />and the government and would prefer they stay separate. Council Member Frierson inquired <br />about the growth and the demand and inquired from Mr. Bell if the average capacity was six <br />months. Mr. Bell confirmed it was ten months in Paris. Council Member Frierson wanted to <br />know how many homes were on the market in the range of under $500,000 or target it to <br />$100,000 to $300,000. Mr. Bell said there were 273 homes on the market in Lamar County. Mr. <br />Vic Ressler said there were 127 homes listed in the City in the range between $75,000 and <br />$250,000. Mayor Hashmi said there were 33 vacant residential lots available. Council Member <br />Frierson expressed concern about prices being suppressed, industrial park endeavor — is it the <br />intention of the City to provide roads. Mayor Hashmi said no, and his thoughts were the City <br />would have no part in participating in any kind of development, so there would be no <br />competition between the City and developers. Mayor Hashmi said he believed that industrial <br />land was well suited in areas close to the airport and that there was industrial land marked at the <br />airport for development of industry. He said his opinion was that when someone was entering <br />into the City on the loop, that he thought it would look nicer to see a beautiful neighborhood. <br />Mayor Hashmi said they had not seen the impact of Skinner, but that was because they had not <br />started operations yet. Council Member Frierson said PEDC had used quite a bit of their <br />resources in the industrial park making it site ready which included the rail spur and expressed <br />concern about a land swap with the airport. He said the airport land was not site ready and <br />would have to go through the process of TxDOT and FAA regulations agreeing to the process. <br />Council Member Frierson said he was for more development and favored forming a committee <br />of a variety of people to discuss and develop this. Mayor Hashmi said in the last twenty years <br />the site ready land and rail spur had not developed anything. Council Member Drake said they <br />needed more medium priced homes in Paris, because not everyone could afford to purchase a <br />home in the Hills. She said there were a lot of options to review and there was a need for new <br />residential developments. Council Member Drake favored formation of a committee to study the <br />options and formulate a plan. It was a consensus of the City Council to form a committee and <br />welcomed Mr. Brown, Mr. Bell and Mr. Ressler to participate in the committee. Mayor Hashmi <br />said he and one other Council Member would participate in the committee. <br />