The finish line may not be quite “in sight” just yet, however, Emporia Lyon County Area Metropolitan Planning Commission Chairman Kenton Thomas believes the commission is continuing to make great progress on revisions to the city of Emporia’s new zoning regulations.
During the commission’s regular meeting Tuesday evening, consultant Jim Kaup presented six items that commissioners requested he review following a special study meeting last Tuesday. Thomas tells KVOE News the majority of those items revolved around the issue of regulating districts, a topic the commission has been heavily discussing in recent weeks.
Following those discussions, commissioners requested Kaup look further into sections of the regulations dealing with infill and greenfield spaces. Thomas says these are areas the commission has been looking into for several years now.
Kaup will present information on those items during the commission’s next regular meeting.
In other businesses, commissioners considered a pair of applications for changes in zoning within Emporia. The first application was for a change from R-1 residential to I-1 low-density industrial for property located roughly a block west of West Street and Fourth.
The change was requested to facilitate the sale of the property and allow for the construction of a storage and automotive workshop facility. The application was approved 4-1 with Commissioner Dan Coulson serving as the lone no-vote.
The second application was for a change from R-1 residential to C-1 general commercial on the southwest corner of 12th and Payton. The request was for three tracts of land to facilitate the construction of a storage facility.
Commissioners denied this request unanimously with Thomas saying, among other concerns, the designation would give the developer a “spectrum” of potential uses, while simultaneously giving the commission very little regulating authority.
The planning commission will next convene for its monthly meeting in December.
