MONROE — The Monroe Common Council approved a request for a zoning petition change from the School District of Monroe at its meeting Nov. 18, which will designate the section of land west of Abraham Lincoln Elementary School as institutional.
“In order to purchase the property, we need it to be zoned as institutional,” said District Administrator Rick Waski. Conditional purchase of the property, on 11th Avenue between 27th and 30th Streets, was approved at the school board’s annual meeting Oct. 14. If purchased, it will cost approximately $210,000.
Will Siegner, whose property is adjacent to the proposed school district expansion, wondered what the land would be used for and if he would have a water problem in his backyard.
“We don’t have a formal facility plan on this,” said Waski, because there were other improvements they were looking at, but that the current plan was to use the space for athletic fields and possibly parking.
“We can’t make any plans if we don’t own the property,” he said.
The council approved the change unanimously, but if the school district does not purchase the property it will remain residential. Alder Michael Boyce was absent.
At the school board meeting on Nov. 25, however, Waski showed the board a utility map that presented a complication regarding the property: a T-shaped path of sanitary lines — about 450 feet of sewage pipe running east-west and more than 450 feet running north-south, most of which sits in the middle of the school district’s prospective footprint.
Those lines were laid in 1974 and serve homes in the neighborhood in a counterintuitive configuration that Waski called “unusual.”
“I would like to talk to the owner of the property and also the city to see if we can work to get these sanitary lines in places that don’t interrupt things,” Waski said.
The move would cost money, and he said designating who would pay for it would be “a point of discussion.”
At its meeting Nov. 18, the Monroe Common Council also:
Passed an ordinance creating a procedure for filling vacancies on the common council. The city clerk will post the vacancy along with a deadline decided by the council. By that deadline, individuals must submit their applications, nomination papers and the required number of resident signatures. The council will decide among qualified candidates by a majority vote. If there’s no majority, the council may reopen and restart the process.
Passed a change of zoning petition by Andrew Kranig, owner of Elevation Motor Company, LLC, and approved a general development plan. Elevation will be moving from its current location at 1311 13th St. to 1715 and 1717 12th St. The zoning change will allow vehicle service and outdoor vehicle sales. The purchase is of the historic D. Fritz Building and Kranig plans to improve the building in ways meeting historic committee approval.
Approved purchase of two new police vehicles, at $28,500 each, to replace two existing department Dodge Chargers. The vehicles will be outfitted in 2020 and the purchase will be made with 2020 funds, but it was approved now so that the department will be ready to travel to North Carolina early next year to get its new K-9.