Rezoning moves to Clintonville Common Council
By Bert Lehman
In a meeting that was marred by confusion, the Clintonville Plan Commission recommended the city council to approve rezoning the former Rexford Longfellow Elementary School property.
The property would be rezoned from residential to B-1 Downtown Business District.
The commission unanimously approved the recommendation when it met Feb. 26.
Even though there was a public hearing on the issue scheduled for the meeting, some residents spoke on the topic during public comments.
Roger Zschaechner, who owns two properties next to the former elementary school, said he thinks the community is more concerned about what is going to happen to the property. He asked what special provisions would be allowed on the property if it were rezoned for B-1. He also asked how property taxes of neighboring properties would be impacted.
He said he does not want to see the former elementary school turned into low-income housing.
Troy Pfefferle of Fun Factory Sensory Gyms, who wants to purchase the property, addressed those in attendance, saying there has been a huge misunderstanding about the property being rezoned.
“This is what happens when I let attorneys handle things with other attorneys,” Pfefferle said. “He thought it was going to be one of our manufacturing facilities. This has nothing to do with manufacturing. And since I’ve met all these wonderful people from St. Martins, I may never even put an employee in that building. There’s too many other good things (that could go in that building).”
Nothing would be put in the building that would make loud noise, Pfefferle said.
“The only reason I threw my hat in on this building, and I’ll do whatever I have to do now to get that building, because of the benefits for the wonderful people in this community, was to bring three of our production facilities under one roof,” Pfefferle said. “I can stay where I’m at. The only reason I did (offer to purchase the building) is because I heard of this low-income housing thing.”
He added, “I bought that building to help. I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problems.”
Resident Clint Barkow said he is against rezoning the property, adding that if a property needs to be rezoned, the purchaser of the property should make the rezoning request.
“The way it was done was totally wrong,” Barkow said.
He said he preferred to have the property remain zoned for residential.
Public hearing
During the public hearing, City Administrator Caz Muske said she thinks there has been some confusion about the rezoning process.
She said the city received a petition for rezoning the two parcels of land the Rexford Longfellow Elementary School complex sits on.
The first time the Clintonville School District submitted a rezoning request, Muske said it “didn’t make sense” based of the potential businesses the city heard were being considered for the building. The school district had originally requested the property be rezoned to industrial usage.
The city then amended its zoning code to allow the potential of light manufacturing. The new zoning recommendation requested by the school district was B-1 Downtown Business District.
Muske said even if the property would be rezoned B-1, that wouldn’t mean light manufacturing would be allowed on the property. The owner of the property would still need to obtain a permit for conditional use from the Clintonville Plan Commission. The permit for conditional use would not transfer if the property is sold. In that case, the new owner would need to petition the Plan Commission.
Plan Commission member Darrell Hansen said he was confused and asked Pfefferle if he still wanted the property rezoned.
“Like I said, I am not against anything that is going to be of value to the community. If it needs to be rezoned for what we’re looking to do, then, yes,” Pfefferle said. “If it doesn’t need to be rezoned for working with St. Martins or any of the other people in the community that are going to benefit from the building, I’m willing to do whatever.”
Plan Commission member Jeanine Supanich said the property is currently zoned R-2 Residential, so if the property is not rezoned, it can be used for only residential purposes.
Clintonville School Board President Ben Huber told the Plan Commission that the board unanimously approved selling the property to Troy Pfefferle. He said the school district wants to sell the property to a responsible member of the community, adding that Pfefferle has been part of the community for decades.
Clintonville School Board member Glen Drew Lundt interrupted Huber, saying, “Ben, this isn’t a school board meeting. Let them have their meeting. If they want to know where the school board stands, they should come to the school board meetings.”
Huber ended his statement by saying the school board has unanimously voted to go through this process.
Lundt then said, “I for the life of me can’t figure out where all the confusion is and why you guys are trying to move forward when nobody seems to know with what. I don’t know why the seller is trying to rezone. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Doesn’t that give them permission to do that? So, then if it’s sold, don’t they have to go through this whole process again. I don’t understand any of that. I have questions, being on the school board myself. People are calling me. I don’t have answers for question. Nobody seems to have an answer. To me, that’s not right. If you’re going to do it, you have the power to do it, do your meeting. But have the answers, explain to people what’s going on. You’re just tearing the whole town apart because of the confusion.”
Muske reiterated that only the owner of the property can petition for rezoning.
Pfefferle said he didn’t want to cause any confusion.
City property owner John Heideman said he thinks Pfefferle is the only person who has an idea of what the buildings would be used for if the property was rezoned.
“It would open up a wide swath of potential uses that I don’t think the city intends to allow,”
Heideman said. “Why would you allow this. There’s a lot of reasons not to allow it, but the reasons for are as clear as mud.”
Plan Commission Chair Stephanie Bonikowske said rezoning the property to a Downtown Business District would allow businesses to be housed on the property.
“That’s why we went away from industrial (rezoning),” Bonikowske said.
Zschaechner, who, at the start of the meeting, said he was against rezoning the property, told the Plan Commission that after hearing Pfefferle’s plans for the property, he was now in favor of rezoning the property to Downtown Business District.