(Spirit Lake)– Some property in Spirit Lake that had been re-zoned years ago to allow a flower shop to open its doors is reverting back to its original classification.
The property is located on the northwest side of the intersection of Hill Avenue and 15th Street. The lot is just outside of the city’s downtown commercial district, in a residential area. It was originally zoned residential but was re-zoned to commercial for the flower shop. The rezoning was approved at the time with the stipulation that should the shop close, the lot would revert back to a residential classification. Now that the business is no longer there, the Spirit Lake City Council Tuesday evening approved re-zoning the lot back to its original R-3 Residential status.
Councilman Jerry Harbst said looking back on it, re-zoning a lot to commercial in an area that’s heavily residential probably wasn’t a good idea…
“In retrospect I think maybe after the vote some of the council people felt they maybe shouldn’t have done it because it just messes up our comp plan we had in place. It was a three-to-two vote I can remember but I can’t remember who voted what way, but it probably shouldn’t have been done because it messes up a comp plan that was well thought out.”
Mayor Bruce Keenan said there are times, however, when comp plans should be atleast a little flexible…
“We have a plan that we want to build around and work within our city, but again, a special exception comes along and any given council can look at that and they fully recognize this is a variation from the plan we think it’s good, bad or otherwise and I’m only guessing from my years on the Board of Adjustment certain things were viewed and so now it’s back to folding it back in with the plan and anything else that comes along stands on it’s own merit and we move on from there.”
A public hearing at Tuesday evening’s meeting to revert the zoning back to residential drew no written or verbal comments.
