As growth in Osceola continues, so does the need to address zoning, as evidenced in recent months with discussions involving zoning in the B-3 districts to accommodate use, as well as permitted uses in B1-H.
With a recent request for a change to re-zone a parcel of land on Truman Road from R-2 One-Two Family Residential to I-1 Light Industrial to enable a proposed use, the Osceola City Council will be taking a look at their comprehensive plan.
At their April 7 meeting, Osceola City Administrator Ty Wheeler explained the planning and zoning commission had not been in favor of the zoning change request, referencing future land use in the city’s comprehensive plan.
“They’ve identified all this as remaining residential and pretty much all down the tracks as being future residential,” Wheeler said. The parcel in question is located on the north side of Truman Road and to the west of South Ridge Road.
Following planning and zoning’s decision, the property owner appealed to the council for his zoning request, bringing with him two letters of support from neighboring property owners. Wheeler said a variance presently exists for a substation on a neighboring property owned by Interstate Power & Light Company exists, which had been approved by the board of adjustment.
In relation to how the comprehensive plan is used for zoning and future land use purposes, any changes made to zoning and land use should be amended in the plan.
“We want to amend our comprehensive plan to match whatever changes are occurring,” Wheeler said, noting it had been done before with previous plans.
Osceola Mayor Thomas Kedley said the zoning changes are a part of community growth.
“This is a good thing. It means our community’s progressing,” he said.
Kedley asked if a precedent had already been set based on the substation’s variance, and pointed to the need to look at the zoning anyway and modifying the comprehensive plan to reflect those changes. In order to amend the comprehensive plan, Wheeler said a public hearing would need to be held.
“We’re going to continue to run into these matters. This is our third one,” Kedley said.
The public hearing would also meet a request by councilwoman Luci Sullivan to update the plan to match zoning changes. Councilman Dr. George Fotiadis noted the plan isn’t necessarily rigid, as there will likely be other things that will need addressed at some point.
“It’s okay to amend your comprehensive plan… but the intent is to be thoughtful and diligent about it,” Wheeler said. “It just has to be thoughtful.”
The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. April 21. A zoning change requires three readings
Parking
Council approved a public hearing regarding parking in the 200 and 300 blocks of North Fillmore Street for April 21. The hearing is for the proposed amendment to the city’s ordinance Chapter 69, “Parking,” that would prohibit parking in those two blocks.
Parking in the 300 block had been broached by councilman Mel Miller during council reports March 3, specifically about the block of Fillmore Street immediately north of the Fillmore and Clay street intersections, which is on a small hill.
“The hill, [there’s] cars parked along there, have to pull around. There’s traffic going to and from school, and sometimes people are going just a tad fast,” Miller said. “It’s kind of an area that potentially has some problems.”
It was noted that residents likely utilize on-street parking for housing in that immediate vicinity.
“Fillmore through there is extra wide,” Osceola Police Chief Marty Duffus said. “It’ll accommodate… you should have three vehicles - one parked, two meeting - with no problems.”
The discussion came back up at the March 24 meeting during Wheeler’s city administrator report and included some housekeeping for the 200 block of the street. While that block, south of the intersection, is presently signed as no parking, he noted that is not found in the city’s ordinances.
“There is no parking prohibition in the ordinance that matches that,” Wheeler said, adding that is the only section of Fillmore Street north of the train tracks that has no parking. “At the very least, we do need to make an amendment to the code to make sure that this actually appears in our ordinance as a no parking [zone].”
He noted such discrepancies are commonly found, often with parking restrictions that were done by resolution that wouldn’t have been codified or during a re-codification process that removed prior resolutions in error.
With an amendment suggested to correct the 200 block, the question was how much of the 300 block should be no parking - the entire block or just half of it - to accommodate visibility concerns.
“There’s so much traffic coming from the high school back out, especially students trying to get back after lunch,” Miller said.
Duffus said there hadn’t been any crashes there, but from his standpoint the easiest thing to do would be to make the whole block no parking. In the event of parties or get-togethers that will use on-street parking, he said generally the police department won’t make much of a fuss. Wheeler said as the parking issue pertained mainly to visibility when cresting the hill, the rest of Fillmore Street should be fine as is.
“Probably the rest of Fillmore North of this block, because you can see down the road, it’s probably fine to continue to allow on street parking,” Wheeler said.
In other council news…
Council approved setting a public hearing for the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget for April 21.
The public is invited to make comments during the public hearings. Comments may also be submitted in writing at the meeting or before at city hall and will be made part of public record in relation to the hearing.