In one of its lengthiest and most well attended meetings of recent months, the Jefferson City Council voted unanimously Monday night to support legislation that will reverse two decades of blight in the revered East Capitol Avenue historic district, bring a new entertainment hub to downtown, allow construction of a once-controversial Mexican restaurant in the east end, permit additional homes into a voluntary annexation in the western suburbs and fund the preliminary architectural work on two current and one future fire station.
The dominant decision was the vote that authorized the Jefferson City Housing Authority to establish a timeline to prioritize and begin acquiring property in the East Capitol Avenue Area Urban Renewal Plan.
As an exclamation point to the council's vote Monday night, the Housing Authority will meet today to initiate the actions, which will formalize those dramatic actions.
The authority's executive director, Cynthia Quetsch, and its chairman, Larry Vincent, attended the City Council meeting. In conversation with Mayor Carrie Tergin, Quetsch established an agreement for the council and the housing authority to meet jointly in coming days to continue the alacrity the city leaders have vowed for weeks they expected now that the legislative and legal obstacles have been cleared from the path of the East Capitol Urban Renewal.
This was a City Council meeting long on staff presentations, public hearings and procedural votes and very short on commentary from the members of the elected body.
An exception, however, was a brief but eloquent observation from Councilman Mark Schreiber prior to the penultimate vote. He seemed to capture the seriousness of Tuesday night's igniting of the Urban Renewal project with a brief soliloquy. Schreiber has been a resident since 1954 and is a pillar of the revival of interest in the Missouri State Penitentiary. He told his colleagues and the crowd he could think of nothing more significant they could do in their term on the council than lead the renewal, redevelopment and restoration of the East Capitol neighborhood, which is bordered by East State Street on the north, Adams Street to the west, East High Street on the south and Lafayette Street on the east.
Schreiber, who seldom speaks at the council meetings, said the current crop of city leaders owes it to their forefathers as well as future and current generations to stop the blight on East Capitol. He called the area "truly the last remnant of the original Jefferson City."
The area includes the Capitol Avenue Historic District, which is federally designated on the National Register of Historic Places and contains 116 parcels in 38.1 acres -- 76 of those parcels are within the historic district.
The council also breezed through a public hearing on a planned unit development (PUD) for 2005 Schotthill Woods Drive and approved the demolition of a former Pizza Hut in favor of a new Taco Bell, featuring late night service and a drive-through. Tuesday marked the fifth occasion since Nov. 6 the council has addressed the proposal.
Attorney Duane Schreimann and commercial property developer Larry Kolb again accompanied an out-of-town team from the K-Mac development group at Fort Smith, painting a picture of a placid development without the earlier protestations of the neighbors. Jason Schwartz of Hawthorn Bank and Jerome Offord Jr. of the East Side Business Association also were on hand to speak in favor of the new fastfood installation.
The council also consented to rezoning 612 Broadway to allow a new project to accommodate a Senter Heating and Cooling Co. expansion.
A PUD at 617, 619, 621 and 621 E. Capitol Ave. was approved to allow development of a complex to augment the existing Avenue HQ and Scene One Theatre, led by entertainment entrepreneur Holly Stitt.
The council agreed with a city staff recommendation to rezone 310 and 312 W. Elm St. from general commercial to high density residential to permit expansion of a garage.
The Meadows by the Club annexation, a voluntary action initiated by the owners of 17 parcels of land there earlier this month, was allowed to add two additional town homes.
A bill was introduced and advanced to accept the Austin Peters Group Classification and Compensation Plan Analysis, adopting the job classification recommendations and salary adjustments. The action permits City Administrator Steve Crowell to proceed with the distribution of $575,000 in payroll increases held in a budget reserve to the city's 400-plus employees. Councilmen Ken Hussey and Rick Mihalevich noted they had met with Crowell to resolve some issues with the plan. Mihalevich said, once finalized, the council will have increased staff compensation by about $1 million this year - $378,000 in payroll and a further $185,000 in benefits through a two percent increase in November - plus the $575,000.
The council also authorized a $117,470 contract with Architects Alliance for technical and professional planning services for fire stations No. 2 and No. 4, as well as the proposed Fire Station 6 at St. Mary's.