Growth in Marion causing call for lower Highway 13 speed limit

The Marion city council would like to lower the speed limit on part of Highway 13.

The main motivator for this proposed slow down is nearby development. Marion cites growth in the area of Highway 151 and Highway 13 and the Prospect Meadows baseball complex that will open later this spring. Right now the speed limit is 50 miles per hour. Thursday night, the Marion council voted to formally ask the Iowa Department of Transportation to reduce the speed, but didn't specify what that speed should be.

"In the past several years, we have had comments from people who live out that way trying to turn from intersections that don't have traffic lights and they are concerned they are going to have an accident if they haven't already had an accident," Nicholas Abouassaly, Marion's mayor, said.

The last time the speed was decreased on Highway 13 in Marion was 2017.