Dubuque - A Dubuque neighborhood is one step closer to having 40 more residents tonight.
The city council approved the first reading of a zoning change that would allow a developer to build up to 40 townhouses.
It's happening near the corner of Key Way Drive and Keymont Drive.
Neighbors are worried about more traffic on an already busy street.
Loving life on Key Way Drive, Earl Alexander considers his backyard one of his homes best features.
Below his yard sits a wooded area, which serves as a drainage area.
He doesn't want to imagine how 40 townhouses back here would change all that.

Alexander said, "That’s more or less a flood zone, I don't know what the hell they are going to do with it."

He and his wife Gwen have watched this neighborhood change over the past several years.
He says the traffic on Key Way Drive is already unbearable.

Alexander said, "It's really going to put a lot of traffic on the street for one thing and also on Pennsylvania Avenue. That's already bad enough trying to get off of Key Way."

But developer Charles Daoud says he's done the research and the traffic really won't be that bad.

Daoud said, "When you look at it, the number of single family homes verses multiple family homes there are less trips mostly that's because there are not children there, coming and going to sports games."

Daoud says his plan to build a townhouse sub-division is the wooded area will comply with the city's green initiative, including geothermal heating, rain gardens, even a neighborhood park.

Daoud said, "We have designed the eastern portion of the property as a park space. That encompasses nearly one third of the property."

But the Alexanders and many of the other neighbors on this street, say this area doesn't need all that. They say it's best to leave well-enough alone.