MURFREESBORO — There may be a light at the end of the tunnel for the Howard Hunter Villas project.

On Tuesday, Murfreesboro Interim Town Administrator Richard Hicks presented a letter received late last Thursday afternoon from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development to the Murfreesboro Town Council.

“They have approved our request to not pave the street in that subdivision until after the houses are built,” he said. “Now we’re waiting on final approval from DCA (Division of Community Assistance) that those three houses will meet their final conditions. We’ve got two of three steps finalized.”

The news was met with a positive response from council members. The housing development, intended for low to moderate income families, has been in the works for several years and has been plagued with setbacks.

“Wow, this is good news,” said Mayor John Hinton.

Hicks noted there are three approved homeowners waiting for funding to go through in order for their homes to be constructed on the Villas’ property.

Within the previous year, the town had informed DCA and USDA that they would pave the streets of the subdivision once homes had been constructed. The agreement was made in a dollar to dollar exchange for the $130,000 the town owed for the Community Development Block Grant used for the project.