East Central Iowa News

The Oskaloosa City Council heard and considered a request for rezoning in a residential area during a recent meeting.

Earl and Belinda Ramirez made a request to the City Council. They said the property at 604 N. B St. should be rezoned from Urban Family Residential to Mixed Use Urban Corridor. The site is mostly vacant and currently is used by a church for a clothing closet; all other tenants have closed their businesses. The petitioners asked to open a golfing simulator in the building with a small concession stand. Earl Ramirez said there are too few activities for families to do in the area, and the building will fall into disrepair without a business operating inside. 

Mayor David Krutzfeldt said the review by the city's Planning and Zoning Commission was not favorable. Its members unanimously recommended denying the proposal, though a few neighbors spoke out in favor of the development. The city's comprehensive plan zoned the area as Medium-Density Residential and recommended against new commercial uses. Krutzfeldt added that other new businesses could detract from the neighborhood's character. Traffic issues were also mentioned, as business traffic could clog up residential areas.

Ramirez responded by saying that they had plenty of space in the parking lot and would ensure that no one clogged the streets. He added that his motivation for creating the golf simulator was to give families and kids the opportunity to do something that they otherwise could not afford to do because golf is a niche sport. Ramirez said the business would be BYOB (bring your own beverage), but the council struggled with that because it could cause issues.

The council rejected the rezoning request; members told telling Ramirez that it might be possible to accommodate the business on the site without rezoning.

"I think a lot of what they are proposing could actually be accommodated within the zoning they have today," Shawn Christ, the city's development services director, said during the meeting. "So, my biggest concern is [that] zoning and commercial opens up the door to a lot of other things that may not be as accommodating there as what they're proposing. So, things like restaurants, taverns, car sales, vehicle storage, all sorts of things that may not fit in the neighborhood. So, he's right that it is across the street from commercial zoning, but it’s entirely surrounded by residential. Unfortunately, we can't zone this conditionally based on what they're proposing here today."

The fact that the golf simulator would also be a community service could alleviate the need for rezoning, Christ said.

"What we could accommodate would be, I believe, the simulator, working with kids, we can accommodate non-profits, we can – they can do a private social club there, as well," he said. "They can issue memberships to people to use that facility. And I've already discussed some ideas with them on what we could not accommodate."