The Emporia City Commission approved 3-0 with two abstentions on Wednesday to rezone the property at 517 West St. from a low density residential to a general commercial district, which will allow for the development of a new Dollar General store.
Mayor Kevin Nelson said he abstained because he has a lease with the Dollar General store at 628 Merchant St., and he found out from the person who does re-leasing of the properties for Dollar General that the downtown location was being closed. This was different from the information the Emporia-Lyon County Metropolitan Area Planning Commission received when it approved the West Street location for rezoning on Jan. 24.
Kevin Hanlin, the planning commission secretary, said Bob Gage, a vice president at GBT Realty Corp., stated at the Jan. 24 meeting that to the best of his knowledge, no existing stores were closing.
“I contacted Bob late last week and talked to him about that, and he was still pretty certain there wasn’t any stores that were going to be closed,” Hanlin said. “I asked him if he would contact Dollar General directly and see if he could get some more information.
“And in a quite apologetic email that he sent me, he did find out Dollar General is planning on closing one of its stores.”
Gage said he did not have the information about the closing of the existing stores because he does not typically have that information whenever he gets permits for new construction. He deals with developing new stores.
“I don’t have any connection with Dollar General other than we lease buildings to them,” he said. “They typically will, whenever there are existing stores that are going to be closed, try to hold that information back as long as they can until they have a guarantee of the new location. They don’t want to panic anybody and any employees of the existing store, so on and so forth, … until something is definitely concrete and in writing.
“I typically don’t get that information until after the fact. The information that I gave was to the best of my knowledge. I didn’t have any knowledge whether there was a store closing or not. I feel like it was not false information. I just didn’t have the information.”
Hanlin said in August, he was visited by a development officer with GBT and asked questions about the West Street property. The company wants to combine that property with the old Wendy’s location at 701 W. Sixth Ave. and develop a new 10,000 square-foot Dollar General store on an area of about 1.19 acres.
Commissioner Rob Gilligan said he agrees that this ordinance is specifically about zoning, but he also felt the city commission was tasked with the overall picture of what the community looks like, how the rezoning would affect the community and if the impact of changing the zoning would adversely affect another neighborhood or group.
Commissioner Jim Kessler said the ordinance is only about rezoning the property.
“I think when you are dealing with zoning changes … you are dealing with the change of the space not who is going to be there necessarily,” he said.
Commissioner Joel Phipps said he abstained because a representative of his company, RE/MAX Select Realtors, has a customer relationship with the owner of the West Street property.
Gilligan said he voted for the ordinance because he did not think the commission should delay the development of the property, but the community needs to have a discussion about how future redevelopment projects could adversely impact other citizens and businesses.
The site planning committee still has to approve the site plan for the new Dollar General — under the provisions of the city’s zoning code — before it can be built, City Manager Matt Zimmerman said. The committee will look at items such as lighting, landscaping, storm water drainage and parking.
In other business Wednesday, the commission did the following:
Approved, 5-0, the consent agenda. This action approved the minutes of the Feb. 1 meeting with changes, the ratification of the payroll ordinance for the periods of Jan. 22 and ending Feb. 4, the January budget report, the starting of bids at 2 p.m. March 27 to receive proposals for restroom facilities to be located in the Eastside Memorial Park at 721 E. Ninth St. at a cost of about $70,000 and the starting of bids at 2 p.m. Feb. 29 for one new dump truck at a cost of about $50,000.
Approved, 5-0, the contract with H.W. Lochner Inc. for airport runway and taxiway design services at Emporia Municipal Airport.
Approved, 5-0, for Nelson to sign the proclamation naming March 3 to 4 as Kansas Hunting and Fishing Expo Weekend in Emporia at the Flinthills Mall.
Approved, 4-0 with one abstain, and awarded the low bid of $32,425 submitted by Bob Crawford Inc. to install air conditioning in the Little Theater above the William Lindsay White Arena. Kessler abstained because he owns Modern Air, which placed a bid for the project.
Approved, 5-0, for Nelson to sign a continuation agreement for three years between the city and Seamless Data Systems for rental of antenna space on the Dryer Park antenna and on the Civic Auditorium.
Approved, 5-0, the resolution approving the Lyon County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan. The plan is required to be updated every five years, said Lyon County Emergency Manager Rick Frevert at the Feb. 8 study session. The city would be eligible for reimbursement of expenses during emergencies from state and federal agencies after adopting the plan.
Rejected, 3-2, the ordinance pertaining to the sale of alcohol at special events. Nelson, Commissioner Bobbi Mlynar and Phipps opposed the ordinance because they wanted to still require any organization to get approval from the commission for the sale of alcohol at each special event. Kessler and Gilligan were for the ordinance because they wanted the organizations to get approval from the city manager.
Approved, 5-0, the ordinance amending the social hosting law and making the city conform with state law.
create (anonymous) says...
Sounds like a bit of big business conspiracy of silence going on which is pretty common in the business world. That should teach those who make decisions to measure twice and cut once.
That said, I'm glad a new store is going in. Let's hope it is kept cleaner than that mess downtown. I don't mind the bargains, but that store is a real mess and dirty to boot.
I hope whatever goes in at that location will clean up the location and realize that clean sidewalks and windows are the responsibility of the business owner. That could be a nice corner location if it were cleaned up. Holy macaroni, who owns that building?
That whole block is so busy, but it could use a little dolling up.
Hey Mr. City Manager, how about a street cleaner down there? There are some great places doing what looks to be a pretty good business in that block. They could use some help. Dang!
February 19, 2012 at 9:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Kevin Nelson has a lease with that Dollar General downtown?
And you let that place get that banged up, Mayor Nelson? On a major business corner of Emporia? Those floors in that store are all cracked and broken. What about the sidewalks? That front door has been broken for a long, long time. Not long ago it was all taped up with duct tape and wouldn't even open.
Really? The mayor of Emporia has that lease?
Really?
February 19, 2012 at 9:24 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tourguide (anonymous) says...
IF he can't take care of his property, can he take care of Emporia ??? NOT...
February 19, 2012 at 10:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
I have many disagreements with Mayor Nelson, and he doesn't need me to try to defend him, but------------.
In regard to this I've got to say, when a commercial business leases a building the lease usually calls that for everyday maintenance and repair needs that are caused by the customer are to be paid by the renter.
I think that Nelson owns that whole side of the block and most of it looks pretty darn good. He spent a large amount stablizing the building that Java Cat and IM design is located in, instead of tearing it down. And we definitely don't need any more vacant lots downtown.
He has other commercial rentals all over town and they all are in good shape and look good.
Cannot speak to the cacked floor issue, but if it's caused by settling, (and it probably was), it would be hard if not impossible to fix it while a store is in business and open to the public.
As far as the cleanliness issue, that is up to the store manager. And it wouldn't hurt for them and other businesses downtown to sweep their own parking gutter mess caused by their patrons once in a while.
CHEESE AND RICE !
Why should we expect a city street cleaner to keep it clean all the time?
IS IT SOMETHING WE ARE ENTITILED TO?
February 19, 2012 at 9:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
No Steve, we shouldn't expect the city to keep it clean all the time, but once in awhile, yes. I drive by there all the time on my way to and fro and I don't see that this has been done in a very long time. I don't understand your "entitled to" question. Taxes pay for street sweeping.
Yes, the manager of that store needs to keep those sidewalks and gutters clean because that particular store seems to have big issues with outdoor dirt and gutter messes. I have no argument there. But cracked floors and a broken door should be addressed by the owner of the building. Who is responsible if someone trips over a broken floor tile? Also, that broken door was like that for quite some time. And why shouldn't the owner of the building stop by and speak to the manager of the store to get some outdoor cleaning up done? That corner is an eyesore, and on such a busy street that looks good everywhere else, why is it such an eyesore?
Speaking of Dollar General Stores, I happened to be out at the one next to Aldi's this weekend. While looking up to find an item on a top shelf, I noticed many, many ceiling tiles are full of mold and they look wet. Roof leak? A friend of mine says they've been that way for a long time. That is the building owner's responsibility whoever that may be.
February 20, 2012 at 8:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
I also agree with you, Steve, with regard to other Emporia businesses policing the areas in front of their establishments. Maybe if they all got together and hired one clean up person to walk the street and clean up all day long. Now that Billy is gone, things just lay in the gutters. Bless him, he used to keep Commercial Street clean.
Now that we have learned what the boundaries of the historic district are, who knows, perhaps some cleaning up will take place. That 600 block is especially a mess. A brand new courthouse and much of the rest looks tired and disheveled.
February 20, 2012 at 9:02 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
create,
Not being a party to the lease I don't know who is responsible for what.
Maybe they ARE having landlord / tenant disputes and that is why the store is building their own store?
Once the new store is open, I think you will notice less trash mess at 6th and Merchant and more mess at 6th and West st. I only say this because I have sat and watched customers leave that store and throw their packaging and sacks out of their cars while still parked there.
Don't get me wrong, it's not just this store but others as well. I know the city steet sweeper hits the entire downtown once a week in the early mornings. But business owners need to get out in between those times and pick up the big hunks of trash.
It all comes down to pride. Pride in your business and pride in your town. If a couple of old farts at 4th and commercial can do it once or twice a week, anyone should be able to.
February 20, 2012 at 12:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
Glad to see Casey got the historical district done. I hope it doesn't put too many restrictions on building owners as I finally broke down and am getting some bids on outdoor rehab of the T.R.
A new awning, stucco and brick repair, new paint, (I'm thinking tiddy pink), and some energy efficient windows upstairs. I had put this off because of ever increasing property taxes, but you can only do that for so long. Maybe I should have left the aluminum siding on the place when i bought it?
February 20, 2012 at 12:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
I'll bet your storefront will look very nice.
I too have seen customers walking out of that Dollar store and throwing wrappers and sacks on the sidewalk. I've also seen people changing diapers and leaving the dirty ones right on the street in many places. Those kind of people with those kind of dirty habits will practice them anywhere, I suppose. They have no shame. Pity their poor children.
But I think you're right about the new location for trash being on West St. next.
February 20, 2012 at 6:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )