BIXBY, Okla. — The Bixby City Council voted against a big housing development moving forward by voting against a zoning change.

The debate about Bixby Farms getting built has been going on since January, with people living in Bixby coming to the city council meetings to voice their concerns.

It’s been a game of tug-of-war between the residents, the developer, and the city council. At one point, it was on the agenda, then councilors denied it, and then months later, it was back on the agenda and then placed on hold to allow the developer to make some changes.

Now, the councilors voted no on the development.

Many concerned people who live in Bixby went to the city council meeting on Monday night to hear a vote on agricultural land between 141st Street and 151st Street, near Sheridan Road.

The development is called Bixby Farms. It’s been on the Bixby City Council agenda for nine months, and neighbors have been urging city councilors to vote ‘np.’

The developer has changed the plans multiple times to try to work with the city, but it still wasn’t enough to get the zoning change for now.

“We are not going to be able to keep housing from being built here forever, but we are trying to get something that’s not so dense and we would like the city to fix the infrastructure before because its already crumbling now, and if you add heavy equipment, semi trucks, concrete trucks for several years in a row — which it would take to do a development of this size. The road is just going to be completely destroyed even to a degree that is already bad,” said one Bixby resident.

Many people who live in Bixby said safety and their children were their most important concerns, and they said the roads are not ready and the schools aren’t big enough.

While the vote was no, that doesn’t stop the development from ever being a possibility. Bixby Farms could be back on the agenda if the council decides and the developers come back with new numbers.