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Regular Council Meeting <br />February 9, 2015 <br />Page 6 <br />where the mistake was made. He said at that point there would have been a public hearing and <br />for that reason, he was recommending that the City Council refer this to the Planning and Zoning <br />Commission and tentatively they planned to meet next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. He said at that time <br />both sides would have an opportunity to speak. Mr. Godwin said the second thing he was going <br />to do was recommend to the City Council, which was not quite as immediate was that the <br />Planning & Zoning Commission take up a zoning case for this whole entire parcel of land, not <br />this parcel but this entire area because there were a lot of things, such as a crematory could be <br />put out there, sexually oriented businesses, drive -in theaters, heavy equipment repair, a lot of <br />things that he did not think they wanted out there. Mr. Godwin said he was not going to suggest <br />that Planning and Zoning take this up next week, but really soon he would ask them to take up a <br />case and rezone most or all of that from commercial to retail because most of that, if not all of it <br />should be retail. He said of course property owners that are affected on either side would get to <br />speak during a public hearing at the Planning and Zoning Commission. Subsequently it would <br />also come back to the City Council. Mr. Godwin said this was a separate issue, but he wanted to <br />mention that because if you look at what is on the list, it needs to be fixed. He said those were <br />his two recommendations. Mr. Godwin apologized and said City Council was not involved with <br />this and that was part of the problem. Mr. Godwin said his two recommendations were to ask the <br />Planning and Zoning Commission to take this up next week and then shortly after that take up a <br />zoning case to rezone this area from commercial to retail. <br />Mayor Frierson asked if anyone had questions of Mr. Godwin. With no questions at this <br />time, Mayor Frierson said he would open up the floor for citizen input and start with letting Mr. <br />Ressler finish what he was speaking about under the citizens' forum. <br />Vic Ressler said he thought the City made a mistake and it was gracious of Mr. Godwin <br />to admit the fact that his staff made a mistake. Mr. Ressler said the only way to fix this at this <br />point was to rescind or revoke the current permit and that every day this company continued <br />spending their money on this property compounded their property. He said at minimum they <br />needed to be stopped. He said he felt they should be reimbursed for the work they started on this <br />property on the premise that they had a correct permit. Mr. Ressler acknowledged that if there <br />was a situation where there was an unclassified use that the procedure was to go through P &Z <br />and that Mr. Godwin explained that very well however, he still maintained that there was one <br />already on the books and it was called salvage. Mr. Ressler disagreed with Mr. Godwin in that <br />he said the zoning book says it is heavy industrial. He also said he could not fathom that anyone <br />on the Planning and Zoning Commission nor any of the elected officials of this City would <br />allow heavy industrial use on Lamar Avenue in that area. Mr. Ressler said he thought it was <br />unfortunate that the City could suffer some financial loss because of this, however there would <br />be the potential liability from all of these people, because there were millions of dollars' worth of <br />property value that were in close proximity to this project. He questioned what kind of liability <br />the City would have if these people suffer loss of value of their property. Mr. Ressler also said it <br />would not necessarily be short term, because you know how things go, sometimes businesses <br />start out with very good intentions but if this company has trouble with stale beer running out on <br />the ground and syrupy drinks and flies and odors and all that kind of stuff, what are the <br />ramifications for the City from all those people that live nearby there and nearby businesses. Mr. <br />Ressler said either way it was not a good thing. Mr. Ressler said he noticed in one of the <br />