Council approves duplex rezoning, downtown art
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
During this week’s City Council meeting, Joyce Cronin of the Maryville Public Arts Committee unveiled the group’s choices for replacement public sculptures to be installed downtown later this year. Pictured clockwise from left are “Farmer” by Larry Starck; “Why Oh Why” by Jade Windell; “Da Fans” by Lee Leuning and Sherri Treeby; and “Spirit Bear” by Del Pettigrew.
What appeared on the surface to be a fairly routine zoning change request by a Maryville couple seeking to build an eight-bedroom duplex on a vacant lot near the southwest corner of North Walnut and West Third Street drew opposition from small group of residents during this week’s Maryville City Council meeting.
The request by property owners Brandon and Natasha Brand, which was approved by the council on a 4-1 vote, calls for rezoning of two lots in the 200 block of North Walnut from R-2 Single Family to R-4 Multi-Family.
Both lots lie within the city’s Campus Town Overlay District, which was created to encourage development of new rental housing in neighborhoods lying to the east of Northwest Missouri State University.
However, even though the city’s comprehensive plan states that higher-density rental housing within the overlay desirable, zoning inside the district is not uniform.
Municipal incentives designed to spur construction of rental housing — especially duplexes and apartments — have led to considerable development in the area, particularly to the north of the Brands’ property. However, the overlay still contains many older single-family homes, some but not all of which have been converted to rentals.
While the half-dozen residents attending Monday’s council meeting to question the Brands’ request acknowledge the changing character of the neighborhood, they also voiced concerns that the proposed two-story duplex, which could house as many as eight people, will increase both storm water runoff and traffic congestion.
The development will include off-street parking in accordance with city requirements.
Paula Haataja, one of the citizens who spoke, said she is also concerned about “zoning creep,” and its potential impact on predominantly single-family areas a few blocks to the west.
As a general rule, zoning changes must be contiguous, meaning lots assigned a new designation must adjoin property already cleared for the same population density.
Since the Brands’ property sits near the edge of the Campus Town Overlay, Haataja said she fears it will make rezoning of non-overlay tracts easier in the future.
Public Works Director C.E. Goodall told the council that staff recommended approval of the change because the application met all setback and parking requirements and constituted a “medium density use which is compatible in accordance with the comprehensive plan.”
The matter was debated earlier by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, which likewise recommended approval on a 5-1 vote.
Councilman Jerry Riggs on Monday cast the sole vote against the rezoning. He said afterward he did so out of “respect” for existing zoning laws, which he said were “there for a purpose.”
“When people are for something, I don’t have a problem,” Riggs said. “But when you have neighbors who oppose a change, I think we need to respect that.”
In other business this week, the council heard a brief presentation by Maryville Public Arts Committee member Joyce Cronin, who presented photographs of three public sculptures to be installed later this year around the courthouse square and a fourth artwork that will be set up along Fourth Street near the Buchanan Street intersection.
Each year the committee, using a few thousand dollars in budgeted city funds, leases sculptures by regional and national artists through SculptureOne, an organization that administers a similar program in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The replacement artworks are then installed on the Main, Third, and Fourth street sides of the square in addition to the West Fourth Street location near the site of Maryville Farmers Market.
This year’s sculptures include: “Farmer” by Larry Starck; “Da Fans” by Lee Leuning and Sherri Treeby; “Why Oh Why” by Jade Windell; and “Spirit Bear” by Del Pettigrew.
In other business, the council:
• Approved of pair of quitclaim deeds that will give the city control over land parcels and street right-of-ways near the Kawasaki Motors manufacturing plant.
Acquiring the property, formerly controlled by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, will allow the city to pursue plans for traffic-flow improvements along the entire South Main retail corridor, including a new access ramp leading from 285th Street to southbound Highway 71.
• Approved a special-event request from Burny’s Sports Bar & Upper Deck for the 30th annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which will take place at 5:17 p.m. Thursday, March 17, outside the bar, which is located at the corner of East Third and North Market Streets.
