Star city leaders have given the green light to the Moyle Junction development off State Street between Plummer Road and Moyle Avenue.After hours of discussion at the July 7 city council meeting, the city approved the 16-acre co mmercial project, which includes new space for retail, office, and medical services. The development sits on the Moyle property a small enclave within Star's city limits and Mayor Trevor Chadwick said it is a well-positioned addition to the city.City leaders added conditions related to drive-throughs, building design, sidewalks, and pedestrian access. Chadwick said the council and the applicant reached a good solution on how the buildings will face the street and where drive-throughs will be permitted.The development will allow uses including childcare, convenience retail, multi-use buildings, and shopping centers. Prohibited uses include auction facilities, food processing, manufacturing plants, recycling centers, storage units, truck stops, and wireless communication facilities."It's the entrance to our city, and so we want it to look really, really nice as they come into town," Chadwick said.A medical office building is also planned as part of the development a service Chadwick said the community genuinely needs.The development will also require additional turn lanes at Plummer Road, along with any other road improvements required by ACHD or ITD along the frontage. Sidewalks will be required along the Highway 44 frontage and on internal streets, making the development walkable and connecting it to the existing commercial area nearby."Basically, when you go from our Toontown area there, you'll be able to walk from one commercial center to the other commercial center and do a lot of different things," Chadwick said.Chadwick said commercial growth also helps cut down on long drives out of Star for everyday services something that adds to traffic concerns as the city continues to grow."Any time we get commercial coming into Star that provides opportunity close to home, it provides opportunities for homegrown businesses to be able to open up shops and things like that there, and that's what we wanna see," Chadwick said.He said Star has seen significant residential growth in recent years, and that the commercial development is now starting to make sense as the population reaches a critical mass."If you could keep it local, like that, it just makes it easier for everybody," Chadwick said.The development also sits next to an osprey nest that many Star residents have grown attached to. Chadwick said the current pole at the corner of Plummer and Highway 44 was always a temporary location and that a permanent new osprey pole has already been installed in front of Ridley's across the street, with Ridley's providing the location. He noted the widening of Highway 44 would have taken out the original pole regardless."We all love our birds around here, so let's just be excited for what's going on there and know that we are trying to take care of that as well, all the wildlife," Chadwick said.Georgia Mackley has lived in Star for 20 years and said she first heard about the Moyle Junction development about two months ago at a public hearing. She said she is excited about what it means for the city."I love Star, and I love that people want to live here and come here and do business here, so I have no regrets for living here and seeing it grow," Mackley said.She said the sidewalk improvements that come with the development are something she has personally felt the need for over the years."It'll be nice to have the sidewalks all on State Street. It's hard to walk through the main part of downtown. When I first moved here, I told my husband, I said, so I'll walk down to Dairy Queen, and you can come in down and we'll have ice cream and you can drive me home, but there's no way that you can really feel safe walking all the way on State Street till they get it improved, which should happen by the end of next year or so," Mackley said.She said she trusts the city's leadership to make the right decisions for Star."We have an awesome mayor that does a great job for us and watches out for us. So, if something gets approved, we know it's the right thing for Star," Mackley said.Ahlquist has not yet announced a timeline for when construction could begin. ...read more read less