Jefferson City Council approves Route CC rezoning

The John G. Christy Municipal Building in downtown Jefferson City is pictured in this Dec. 1, 2016 photo.
The John G. Christy Municipal Building in downtown Jefferson City is pictured in this Dec. 1, 2016 photo.

The Jefferson City Council approved rezoning nearly 3 acres on Route CC for a potential garden center expansion Monday evening.

The council approved 8-2 rezoning 2.69 acres in the 2700 block of Route CC from RU Rural to C-2 General Commercial to help facilitate a possible expansion of Green Horizons Garden Center LLC.

Applicant Rick Penno, also co-owner of Green Horizons Garden Center, requested the rezoning. He previously said the land is currently undeveloped, and he doesn't have immediate plans to expand.

Penno reduced the initial rezoning request after receiving concerns from neighboring residents. Before the Jefferson City Planning and Zoning Commission approved the request last month, residents said they were worried the commercial rezoning could lead to other developments, not just the possible expansion.

Ward 5 Councilman Jon Hensley and Ward 3 Councilman Ken Hussey voted against the proposal. Hussey said he voted against it since there's not a plan in place to ensure the property is used only for expansion, not used for another commercial purpose.

"There's not exactly a plan for what's going to happen on that particular rezoned piece of land at this point," Hussey told the News Tribune on Tuesday. "To me, it seemed like, should that be a (Planned Unit Development plan) instead, or should there be some sort of plan in place as to what's going to happen? I think the neighboring property owners had valid concerns so I would have preferred to have seen some sort of plan for what would happen to that particular piece of property."

Jefferson City Senior Planner Eric Barron told the council Monday it would have been difficult to zone the area as a PUD since that would have required a preliminary plan at the time of the rezoning request.

In other business Monday, the council unanimously approved down-zoning 22 acres containing 96 properties on the southside neighborhood area, bordered by Dunklin, Madison, Hickory and Lafayette streets.

The area is currently zoned RA-2 Multi-Family Residential, C-2 General Commercial and RD Residential Duplex. The area, containing predominately single-family neighborhoods, will now be zoned RS-4 Single Family Residential.

The down-zoning would prevent future property owners from converting single-family residents into multi-family homes, city staff said.

The rezoning is recommended in the 20-year Historic Southside/Old Munichburg District and Neighborhood Plan.

The Jefferson City Planning and Zoning Commission approved the rezoning in November.

The council also approved a tax break and expansion plan for Command Web Offset Printing, at 7100 One Color Way, on Monday.

A set of Chapter 100 property tax abatements would abate 50 percent of the property tax on equipment installed in the two-phase, $34.25 million project.

Hensley abstained from voting on this measure.