City acts on land issues        

[MAY 3, 2005]  The city received a petition to change zoning of nearly 4 acres of property at 609 Feldman Drive from R-2 residential to C-2 commercial. The property faces Business 55, lies between White Avenue and State Street, and is across from Kickapoo Creek Park.

The property is surrounded by a residential area and adjacent to Windemere Estates. It is currently crop farmed. Board Enterprises, 621 Woodlawn Road, intended to build storage units for rental on the property.

Residents opposing the change of zoning hired an attorney to represent their objection. Doug Muck attended the public hearing before the Lincoln Planning Commission and last week’s council workshop to explain their concerns.

Once the zoning is changed, it is changed, and C-2 is a more open zoning than C-1. The C-2 designation allows for many types of businesses. There are no assurances that down the line some other less-compatible type of business might locate on the property. There would be nothing anyone could do about it. Eighty percent of the residents of Windemere are opposed, Muck said.

The planning commission denied the petition 8-0, recommending the council not approve it either. With the denial it would take a two-thirds council vote to approve it.

The council voted 10-0 to deny the rezoning request.

On another zoning matter the Grand Lodge of the State of Illinois of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows sought a special-use variance in an R-2 zone. The organization intends to build a museum and offices on the property located at 845 Wyatt Ave.

This request also went before the Lincoln Planning Commission and met with 8-0 approval. The council agreed to the variance with 100 percent approval.

A groundbreaking ceremony open to the public is scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m.

A request to de-annex property from the city of Lincoln was presented by Jim and Lisa Drew. The property is located in the Stonebrook subdivision at 511 Memorial Park. 

The Drews purchased the property some years ago with intentions to build a home on it at a later date. In the meantime other homes were built around the property, and it was recently discovered that running sewer lines to the property would cause significant disruption to established neighboring properties. De-annexing would allow installation of a septic system.

In the interest of allowing the Drews to be good neighbors, the city agreed by 100 percent vote to de-annex the property.

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