Some rezoning

And then it was gone

Below are two pictures of the Soesbe Building taken on Wednesday.

On Thursday only a tiny bit of the building remained and it was being torn down.

On Friday morning all that was left was on the ground and being cleaned up.

On the topic of demolition, the Catholic Church in Goodland is being demolished. It was closed after Sacred Heart Church in Remington reopened after being repaired. One priest served Rensselaer, Remington, and Goodland and there were just not enough parishioners in Goodland to keep that parish as a separate entity.

 Rensselaer Plan Commission


The Rensselaer Plan Commission met Thursday evening with both old and new business on their agenda. It approved the ordinance that the Council returned to them with one of the paragraphs deleted. The revised ordinance will again go to the Council for approval. A rezoning request for a property along Melville has been discussed at two previous meetings. At this meeting a new map was presented, rezoning the parts of the block in question that are being used for residences to R1. The map also rezoned several parcels that are being used for industrial to light industrial. Included in the change to light industrial is the block that was previously used by the State Highway Department. It has chemical contamination and cannot be used for housing. The Commission approved the Building Commissioner to proceed with notifying people about the proposal. A public hearing will be necessary before these lots are rezoned.

The first item in new business was a request from Saint Joseph's College to rezone a parcel that includes the parking lot west of the Halleck Center and the former softball field from residential suburban to residential. The major change is that the RS zoning requires one-acre lots and the R1 zoning only 0.17 acres. With RS zoning fewer than 15 houses could be build but the College thinks it can get 28 houses built with the R1 zoning. The College wants to start a building trades program and constructing houses will be part of that program. The College would like to start the program in the fall of 2024. The Commission approved a recommendation of approval to the City Council.

The next rezoning request was for a rezone from R-1 to B-1 (Neighborhood business) for the property that has been Busy Bee. The owner tried to sell the business, but found no buyers and now wants to convert it to a dog-grooming business. To make the new business legal, the property must be rezoned. There will be no additions to the building but the inside will be remodeled. The Commission supported the change in zoning.

There was a short discussion of a petition to vacate the undeveloped parts of Prairie Street, which lies north of the very large warehouse north of Merritt Street between Cullen and Weston Streets. No action was taken at this meeting. There was another short discussion of a proposal to update the Zoning Ordinance and the Subdivision Control Ordinance. Finally, the requirements for membership on the Plan Commission were reviewed. The Council appoints three who are officials or employees of the City and the mayor appoints four citizen members, only two of whom can be from the same political party.


BZA meeting

The main item on the Rensselaer BZA agenda was a conditional use variance for a church building in a B-3 zoning district. The petitioners represent a church of about 150 members that is currently meeting in the Church of the Nazarene. They would like to remodel the former R&M building on Kellner Blvd. They do not know how much, if any, of the current building they will keep; that decision will be made by contractors or people who are engineers or architects. Two people from the DeMotte area who have many years of building experience are supporting their efforts. An area of concern was that applicants for liquor licenses within 600 feet of a church property need church approval. The members of the BZA did not like this requirement so they made one of the conditions for approval of the variance that the church cannot impede liquor business in the R-3 district (which includes all of downtown). The petitioners thought remodeling would take about a year. They have not yet purchased the property; they were waiting for the variance before they bought.

Below is an architect's rendition of what the completed church will look like. It was taken from the handout at the BZA meeting.

The Board then discussed the requirements for membership. No one who is an elected official may serve on the Board, so this was the last meeting for Jeff Rayburn, who will become a member of the City Council in January.


Notes

On the way home from the Rensselaer BZA meeting I stopped in the Library to pick up a book. A meeting of the Republican caucus was just getting out and I saw several people I knew. I asked one who they had selected to replace Bret Risner for the County Council and they told me that they had selected Jacob Misch who lives near Wheatfield.

I took a picture of water-towere construction on Thursday. I was disappointed that this picture is not a lot more different from the one I took two weeks ago. The section of the stem that will be between the base and the top is longer.

The Park Department is putting out new trash cans. Their purchase was approved by the City Council in September.