Hinesville is growing  this time with another 22 acres and possibly another 100 homes.

Council members approved the annexation request from RTS Home to annex 22 acres of land off Ruben Wells Road and to rezone the land from agricultural to planned unit development.

The tract is between Griffin Park and Fort Stewart and is the last undeveloped piece in that area, Liberty Consolidated Planning Commission director Jeff Ricketson told council members.

Changes proposed to the planned unit development include replacing plans to build a 200-unit apartment complex with a mix of 100 townhomes and single-family homes. That would bring the total number of homes planned for the development to 736. Council members also voted not to have developers adhere to one of the planning commission’s conditions, which included turning a spine road in the development into a connector with Grove Point Road. Developers had asked to keep that road a local street and eliminate the request to make it a connector.

Council members also approved a contract to expand Krebs Park and add four pickleball courts, and also set in motion plans to see how the city could improve minority business enterprise participation in contracts.

Council members awarded the contract for expanding Krebs Park to Swindell Construction, though the firm did not meet the 13% requirement of MBE participation.

Under the contract, Swindell Construction will convert the existing tennis court to four pickleball courts, giving the park a total of six pickleball courts. It also will build a new tennis court and make it big enough to convert to four additional pickleball courts if the need arises.

“You go out there any night, and that place is loaded,” city engineer Paul Simonton told council members. “That park is used.”

While Sittle Construction, the second-ranked bidder, did meet the MBE participation goal, Simonton acknowledged that some firms that could qualify as MBE subcontractors don’t pursue the certification. He added Swindell may have been close to the target but some of its subs were not certified and weren’t counted as part of the MBE participation.

“Some of them say they have plenty of work without going through that process,” Council member Vicky Nelson said.

Mayor Karl Riles suggested contractors urge their subcontractors to pursue the certification.

“I’d go to my subs and go, ‘look, you’re costing me jobs by not being certified,’” he said. “I don’t know when the last time we had the program was, but it’s time to do it again.”