TYLER — What many people fail to realize about the West Tyler development is that much of it has already been approved, according to Kyle Kingma, the Planning Manager for the City of Tyler.

"They're looking at seeing if they can do what they want to do within in the current zoning," Kingma said.

He said as long as the developer can submit a final plan showing they'll stay within the bounds of their zoning, they can start building.

"We've let them know that what's been approved today, already, seems more appropriate because of the size of the tract and the new development," Kingma said.

Under the current Proposal, the developer can build a school and shopping center.

What's still on the table is more housing units.

The developer was approved for 2,100 but is asking for more.

"From our analysis based on what would be approved today, it's about 1,000 more than what's originally approved," Kingma said. "So, we're working through that to see if that additional impact would be beneficial for the city, or not."

Chris Burrow represents the current property owners, and issued a statement to CBS19.

It reads in part, "The developer may choose to move forward with the project based on the current zoning. We believe this may be the easiest route for the developer."

The city is now waiting on the developer to put together a final proposal for the property.

"Even here today we're still not exactly sure what the developer would like to do for their final proposal," Kingma said. "So, from the staff perspective we're still waiting to see what that is, and then we'll give our opinion at that time."

The city said a vote for final approval on the project will be added to the council's agenda when the developer is ready.

The developer is based in China, and his representatives at Adams Engineering say he'll be in the U.S within the next few weeks.