A Cold Spring couple addressed the city council with concerns about how their home was zoned, which would prevent them from rebuilding if it were destroyed.
Joe and Sharon Clark live on Neltner Drive in Cold Spring, a street they say has all homes but is zoned commercially as a “neighborhood shopping center.” The street sits adjacent to the shopping center that houses Kroger on Martha Layne Collins Boulevard. The commercial zone, established in 1987, poses issues of getting a lender from a bank, and should a house burn down or be destroyed, it would not be able to be rebuilt.
“We never at any time were aware of the fact that it became commercial,” Joe Clark said. “Never.”
According to Cold Spring City Attorney Brandon Voelker, Neltner Drive was rezoned from residential to a neighborhood shopping center in 1987 at the same time as the shopping plaza.
The Clarks said they are the only homeowners left on the street from that time and don’t believe their neighbors know about the zoning. They became aware of the zone change when they went to list their home for sale.
Voelker read from a meeting record from 1987 regarding the zone change.
“They said there was a meeting on Nov. 4 of ’87 at Leroy Neltner’s house,” he said. “It says all the neighbors were there with the exception of the doctor’s office. It does say one of the questions posed was, ‘Can they still sell as single-family if zoned commercial?’ It said yes, but they might have problems with bank financing—which would be true. It says Leroy Neltner asked for a straw vote for who wants to change to commercial. All raised their hands in favor.”
The vote was not binding but gave the city an idea of what direction the residents wanted to go. The city then would have needed to hold an official meeting and vote.
“Back in 1987, there was a hearing held in the planning and zoning commission that recommended changing Neltner Drive from residential to neighborhood shopping center, and it’s been that way ever since,” Voelker said. “P and Z approved it and then it came to the city to approve it. I think where the hiccup becomes is you’re a nonconforming use of residential, but your zoning designation is actually commercial.”
Nonconforming use occurs when zoning laws are changed and allow existing property some form of exemption from abiding by the new regulations. According to the city, the Clark’s home became nonconforming when it switched to commercial.
Voelker said the only people who could have applied to change the zoning were property owners, the city, or the city’s planning and zoning commission. If it were a resident application, every resident would have had to be on it.
“Or what could have happened is that after this straw poll, the city could have sponsored the change, and then it got approved by the city council,” Voelker said.
Voelker said this issue has come up over the last 10-15 years, and the area has always been zoned commercial. A few years ago, he said self-storage units were proposed for the area, and they asked if the residents wanted it to go back to residential, but he didn’t know what happened with that.
Sharon Clark said no one ever asked them, but she would have chosen to have it go back to residential.
“I was informed today that if our house were to have burned down since its NSC (neighborhood shopping center), we can’t rebuild it,” Sharon Clark said.
Voelker said that was true and why a bank wouldn’t lend money. He said the city isn’t sure everyone in the 80s knew what they agreed to switch to.
Sharon Clark said she didn’t understand why the street couldn’t return to residential.
According to Voelker, it could if it met the zoning ordinance, but it must have a minimum of five acres or be adjacent to a residential zone, which it is not. The city said there are roughly 2.7 acres on Neltner Drive.
Cold Spring City Council Member Adam Sandfoss asked about the plausibility of changing the city’s zoning code to require less than five acres for a residential zone.
Voelker said step one would be for all neighbors to sign off on the idea.
The Clarks said they had yet to discuss the issue with their neighbors but were planning to.
“I am sure not one neighbor knows that if their house burns down, they cannot rebuild,” Sharon Clark said.
Sandfoss said their hands are tied because it happened 37 years ago.
“What I would say to you all is to talk to your neighbors because if one person says no, then that kind of loses the argument,” Sandfoss said. “You can at least bolster your case and say, ‘hey, we have everybody on the same page that, yes, they know if their house burns down, it can’t be rebuilt.’ But I would also make sure they’re aware that if they had plans to sell to commercial, they couldn’t do that either.”
By law, a text amendment must go through the planning and zoning commission to make the change official, Voelker said.
So, what are the next steps?
Sandfoss said the couple should put together a document that says everyone on the street is on the same page and knows the pros and cons of switching. Meanwhile, the city would consider sending a letter to planning and zoning for their recommendations for changing the acreage.
The city council said that making the requirement too low could affect other areas of the city.
“This is a pretty delicate situation, and we also need to think of the long-term implications,” Sandfoss said. “If we change it to 2 acres to make sure you have enough property, well, what does that mean for everyone else in the city?”
