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Estherville City Council Sets Date For Hearings On Two Zoning-Related Matters

June 19, 2023 Steve Schwaller

(Estherville)– The Estherville City Council Monday scheduled a date for a couple of public hearings on two related issues pertaining to zoning. The owner of a building that’s currently zoned multi-family residential wants to sell it, but the prospective new owner wants to locate a flower shop in a portion of it, and the sale is pending the zoning being changed to commercial, which city officials say would be consistent with some nearby buildings.

On a related note, city officials say an apartment in the building is currently occupied and would remain under lease for awhile yet once the zoning change would become effective. Rather than kicking out the renter, Greg Van Langen, the city’s Zoning Administrator, says the building’s current owner requested a provision in the zoning change. He explained what the Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending…

“Their concern was that if you have a multi story commercial building and you didn’t designate floors that they could, on the main area where you’d expect to see a commercial building, they could have apartments which would make it look more residential in nature rather than commercial. And they also didn’t want it, you know, behind it or beside. They wanted it to just have the commercial property look like a commercial property, but that residence would be allowed if it was on any floor other than the main floor. So upper floor, lower floor you could have an apartment. If you have a commercial building that’s all on one floor, then you would NOT be allowed to have an apartment by their wording. That they seemed to be pretty adamant about.”

Public hearings on both proposed changes are set for July 3rd.

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