The Locust Grove City Council voted at its August 5 regular meeting to approve a preliminary plat for a new residential subdivision on the northern end of the city.

  The property consists of about 25.5 acres along South Bethany Road, north of its intersection with Mose Brown Road. It is also north of the Locust Grove Conference Center and Warren Holder Park.

  The approved plat includes 47 lots, each with a minimum size of 18,000 square feet and a minimum width of 100 feet. Setbacks are 40 feet in the front and the rear, and 15 feet on the sides. Minimum house size is 2,000 square feet.

  The property was rezoned to R-2 in April of this year, and the initial application was for 50 lots with the subdivision entrance closer to the northern end of the property. Further engineering led to the decision to move the entrance farther south and reduce the number of lots to 47. The developers are also adding a connection to the street network which will complete a loop and allow for better infrastructure efficiency, according to a staff report.

  The resolution to approve the preliminary plat passed unanimously, as did a resolution to approve architectural plans for a Starbucks/urgent care facility at 4837 Bill Gardner Parkway, the former site of a Shell gas station.

  In other business, a draft audit document was accepted unanimously by the council for the 2018 fiscal year. It shows the city’s assets exceeding its liabilities by $32,598,643 as of Dec. 31, 2018. That is an increase of $3,925,042 in its net position.

  The city’s governmental funds reported combined ending fund balances of $5,986,134. That is an increase of $1,413,409 over the previous year. Of the total fund balance, $3,704,942 is unassigned and available for spending while $1,723,176 is restricted for capital projects and other specific future uses. The unassigned fund balance amount is 80 percent of total general fund expenditures for the year ending Dec. 31, 2018.

  Locust Grove’s total debt obligations decreased by $1,187,982 last year to a total of $6,103,136 as of year‐end. The city made principal payments of $707,204 on its long‐term debt.