NATCHEZ — An alderman’s statement that approval for a low-income housing development was “snuck through” led to a lengthy discussion of what the development would look like and who approved it. But the vote that resulted from the discussion ultimately has little effect on the development.

The discussion started Tuesday when Natchez City Planner Bob Nix presented the aldermen with a request to subdivide the property on which the Stonehurst Arms development will be located into two tracts of land. One of the parcels would be developed into 26 townhouse units, while Nix said the other would remain undeveloped for the time being.

The development will be built at the corner of St. Catherine and Rembert streets.

Before the matter was taken to a vote, however, Alderman Tony Fields, in whose district the project will be located, objected to the placement of the development.

“You are talking about putting units in an area that is already heavily populated,” he said. “That will be adding a lot of traffic to that area, and more people to that area. We just don’t need to put that (development) in this area.”

David Kelly of Charter Consulting, who represented the developers, responded by saying that he did not believe 24 families would have a significant impact on traffic.

Kelly told the aldermen that the planning commission had already approved the site plan, and Nix said that not granting the property subdivision would not stop the project. Alderman Ricky Gray said he felt the board and the community had not been sufficiently filled in on the development.

“Why wasn’t this board in on everything that was going on?” Gray said.

“The people who needed to be here, who needed to be informed, were not informed or they would be here — I do not like the way this was snuck through here.”

A public hearing for the site plan was held with the planning commission, and the time period for any appeals against the plan has expired, Nix said.

“The site plan has been approved,” Nix said. “The project can be built without the subdivision.”

Kelly said he objected to the characterization of the plans as being done under the radar.

“The public hearing was done at the planning commission level,” he said. “We have complied with your statutes.”

During the discussion, the aldermen grilled Kelly about what the housing units would look like, who would maintain them and what the site’s drainage plan would look like. When the issue before the board went to a vote, only Aldermen Dan Dillard and Mark Fortenbery voted to grant the subdivsion of the property. After the vote was taken, Dillard addressed the other aldermen, saying, “Y’all didn’t kill the project, you just didn’t subdivide the lot.”

Also during the meeting, Gray asked Mayor Jake Middleton when the city was going to hire a permanent police chief.

“It is about time we set up some interviews,” Gray said. “When are we going to set a date?”

Waiting a long time to hire from a pool of applicants could mean that the city loses a qualified applicant to another city, he said.

“You don’t know if these people are going somewhere else,” Gray said.

Middleton said he would arrange an afternoon in the near future where the board could interview all of the applicants for the position.