Calling a house a house
Planning commission removes commercial zone from Emporia home
By Scott Rochat
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
George Rainsbarger’s home is still a home. But now it has the zoning to match.
The Metropolitan Area Planning Commission voted Wednesday to rezone Rainsbarger's house at 1221 W. South Ave. from commercial to low-density residential. Rainsbarger said he had a buyer for the house, but the property had to be rezoned so that the bank could make a home loan.
The house had been zoned commercial in 1975 by auctioneer Earl Whitehurst, Rainsbarger’s father-in-law, so that he could hold auctions there. But these days, the zoning is more of a nuisance. With commercial zoning, if the home were destroyed or extensively damaged, it could not be easily replaced.
“As long as it’s a C-3 property, lending institutions apparently believe that lost property is a greater risk for them,” Rainsbarger said.
The neighborhood is a residential one.
The rezoning met no objections.
“It makes good zoning sense,” Planning Commissioner Pete Euler said.
Future business
Next month’s meeting will include a discussion of pole signs. Flinthills Mall has applied to have an additional one on their property. Current regulations allow one pole sign per business per parcel of land, commission secretary Kevin Hanlin said, which could technically allow the mall and each of its merchants a sign if they wanted one.
“That sounds like a loophole,” Planning Commissioner Kenton Thomas said.
One proposed change might allow one pole sign for every 150 lineal feet, which would allow large properties like the mall to have a sign on more than one side of the property without permitting a forest of signs.
The commission will also, at a future meeting, review properties that have received a conditional use permit but have never been developed. Commissioners will discuss whether to sunset those permits.
Planning commissioners also planned to visit with the Emporia City Commission at lunch today to see how capital improvements should be reviewed by the planning commission. A past planning commissioner, Raymond Rogers, said last year that the proper procedure had not always been followed.
“There’s a lot of potential for growth on the west side, opportunities,” Euler said. “You hope we’ll be looking at the same page.”