Kalona is taking the next steps to grow the town by 600 acres. At their meeting Monday, the Kaloan City Council had an update on the annexation process of 600 acres of land on the Shiloh and Marion farmland. City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh tells KCII News what will happen next,  “Staff was directed to proceed with the process of notifying the county, so we’ll do that yet this week. And here at the [January] 20th meeting we’ll have a potential developer and some owners there, as well as our city attorney to really engage that next step in the annexation process.”

Schlabaugh also commented saying this annexation process has been received very well by locals, saying it has the potential to bring some growth to the area, “The positives are it has the potential to add some unexpected growth to our city limits. And that growth comes with taxable revenue. For the most part it’s exempt property right now, being that it’s church owned. So that would benefit both the city, county, school district, and so forth.” The next meeting will be held Monday, January 20th.