Discussions regarding the City of Kalona annexing the Shiloh Church property are progressing after a pair of meetings.

Last week, Kalona city officials met with Carl A. Nelson Associates, who is examining Shiloh’s facilities and comparing it to state and city code. Later on in the week, Kalona met with RDG Planning and Design to discuss what annexation could look like. RDG will take information gathered by the city from public input and committee suggestions and create preliminary designs.

Council member Jenelle Bender was happy with how the meeting with RDG went, “There were a lot of good ideas, a lot of good things I thought that was mentioned that says, ‘There’s opportunities out there.’”

City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh says RDG will put together a preliminary layout to scope where there’s potential for housing developments, as well as look at the trail system. This is the first time any designs or layouts will be put to paper since annexation talks began earlier this year.