Plan Commission Recommends Rezoning for Residential Project

The Effingham City Plan Commission Tuesday voted to recommend the City Council rezone land on the city's south end for a residential development.

The parcel is now zoned non-urban. The rezoning would make it R-3B, or two-family duplex dwelling district.

Heather Mumma wants to develop 14.4 acres of land on the southwest corner of Jaycee Avenue and a southerly extension of Veterans Drive. Mumma is looking at some combination of single family and duplex residences, but said she hasn't decided on what shape the project will take, nor what will be the breakdown of structures to be developed on the tract.

It wasn't just the project that was discussed, though; it was also the condition of Jaycee Avenue and Veterans Drive in that area and how those roadways will accommodate the increased traffic the development will bring.

City Planner Greg Koester said Jaycee and Veterans are collector streets, but said no work has been done to bring the streets to that status. Some Commission members indicated they'd like to see that change.

As to the project, some residents of the area said they were concerned about the modular structures Mumma has planned for the property and what they might do to their property values.

One of the youngest ever to testify at a Plan Commission hearing, 16-year-old Eli Aden said he didn't have as much concern about the development as he did getting Jaycee and Veterans widened, better lighted and equipped with sidewalks the length of the streets. Aden said as a new driver, the streets make him nervous.

Drainage, or a lack of it in the area, was also a concern raised by the neighbors.

Commisioner Mark Thies, though, said since he's been on the Commission, there has been discussion of a need for more housing in the city, and he saw nothing in the project to discourage him from voting in favor of rezoning the property. When a voice vote was taken, there were no opposing votes heard.

The City Council has the final vote on whether the rezoning will be approved.

Commissioners also recommended rezoning land along the east side of North Route 45, north from Evergreen Avenue from non-urban to single-family residential. Teresa Chenoweth, who is trustee for the estate of her late mother, Millie Stumeier, said the estate is still being settled and then any development will occur.

The Commission also recommended rezoning a lot at 4 Woodbird Drive from general commercial to single-family residential, approved site plans for a 15,000 square foot building for Effingham Storage Solutions behind 2301 South Banker and for additional manufacturing space for Pyramid Marble on McGrath Avenue in the City Business Park, and recommended approval by the Council of a replat of Village Square Mall Subdivision, creating separate lots for the Mall itself and for Wabash Tire and Auto Center.

The Commission also spent more than an hour listening to arguments for and against a cell tower to be built at 302 High Street. An attorney for an existing tower says AT&T's desire to locate on a new tower should be rejected since there is enough space on the existing tower to provide the expanded service AT&T says they want to provide. Commission members eventually called a halt to the testimony and will review what they were presented before resuming the hearing at the December 10 meeting.