The City of Mexico will soon have more affordable housing.

Mexico City Council members approved the final sketch plan for a new residential subdivision at the May 11 meeting. Park Place, owned by Timothy Furlong, will cover approximately 2.42 acres split into six tracts along Mars Street between Saturn and Agricultural streets.

This will be the city’s third residential subdivision actively under construction.

“They are planning to start construction on at least one house very soon, and then you should see some more houses thereafter," Drew Williford, deputy city manager, said.

Of the six lots, only five are buildable.

“That sixth lot is landlocked, so we have requested the plat be made conditionally non-buildable,” Williford said.

Property owners who are adjacent to the additional tract will have the option of purchasing the land to add to their contiguous property. As for the buildable lots, Williford said the owner is planning to construct single-family dwellings.

“The nice thing about it is they found a way to construct essentially five residential units without needing to put in public utilities,” he said.

Cost of infrastructure is one of the biggest problems the city and developers are running into. Williford used the Park Creek subdivision as an example — developers had to build out a full street with two cul-de-sacs, sewer and wastewater systems for 16 lots. Having an existing system will “dramatically” reduce the cost of the houses.

“I’m hopeful these houses will be very much affordable housing for the community,” he said.

The three new residential subdivisions are Park Creek, located on the southwest side of Mexico; Bellray, located on Friendship Drive between Christopher Road and Country Place Court; and Park Place.