Smiths’ request to rezone lots initially approved

Lots are available for purchase from the City of Cornell in Brunet Estates and with lessened building restrictions, it’s hoped the properties will sell quickly. Photo by Ginna Young

By Ginna Young

A lot at the Cornell Brunet Estates, owned by residents Tim and Sue Smith, has sat vacant for 18 years, although the couple originally planned on building there. With T. Smith owning his own construction business, the lot should have seen a quick build and turn-around...until the economy dropped.

The Smiths decided not to take the financial risk, although, a number of years ago, T. Smith asked to build a duplex on the lot, to which the council agreed, with some conditions. T. Smith discovered he possibly stood to lose a significant amount of money if he went that way and dropped the request.

Now that he is retired, T. Smith just wants to be rid of the lot and put it up for sale. But with the R-3 zoning and other restrictions, T. Smith hasn’t even found a realtor to list it.

“It’s basically unsellable,” said T. Smith at a Planning Commission meeting Jan. 27.

T. Smith says he is certain the lot will sell, if people aren’t so restricted by the agreement in place with the city and asked that the agreement be altered.

“It’s still a very logical lot for the right person to build on,” he said.

City administrator Dave DeJongh said he believes when the lot agreement was drawn up, that the feeling was to discourage the building of such ventures as a low income apartment building, which could detract from other property values. While some of the restrictions don’t make sense, DeJongh said it is possible other lot owners could want their agreements changed, as well.

Commission members questioned each other if they thought changing the R-3 to an R-2 would devalue other properties, but the answer was unanimously no. Commission member Steve Turany said he wouldn’t want to see revolving door renters, but would like to see permanent families living there.

However, there is at least one rental lot currently in the estates, so Turany asked if it would really make any difference to have something such as a duplex on the Smiths’ lot.

“Is the elephant in the room low income housing?” said Turany.

The commission decided to recommend changing T. Smith’s zoning to R-2 and make his restrictive covenants the same as everyone else in the estate.

As for the restrictive covenant, the commission recommended changing some of the language, including the minimum fair market value of $70,000 to $100,000, and to allow detached garages. It was agreed that members could see no reason to insist only attached garages be built, unless it was to discourage anyone starting a business out of their home.

Since city ordinances prevent that anyway, the outdated covenants were discarded.

“I think that may be prohibitive,” said Turany. “I think that’s preventing people from buying lots and developing them.”

Commission member John Smith said he didn’t want to see people “priced out” and that three-quarters of Cornell has detached garages.

Members also agreed to recommending rezoning Lots 4 and 5, from R-1 to R-2, allowing for construction of a duplex or a single family home. They also set the minimum building width of 24 feet.

“I sincerely hope this opens things up out there,” said Turany. “Maybe this will be the catalyst.”