City to vote Monday on Strawn Road annexation, allowing a new Humane Society
City council members will vote and hold a hearing at Monday’s city council meeting on whether to annex in a 47 acre piece of land located at 804 N. Strawn Road.
The city will also vote on allowing the Central Missouri Humane Society to receive a portion of the land.
“In addition to annexing the property, there’s also on the agenda, a memorandum of understanding with the Humane Society to use a small portion of it,” Ward 2 councilman Michael Trapp said. “So they can do a capital campaign to build a new headquarters for the Human Society.”
Trapp said he is hopeful and confident the city will pass the annexing of the land. However, he said he is less confident in the city passing the memorandum allowing the Humane Society to build on the land.
“Whatever its final disposition is, it’s going to add a lot of value to the city,” Trapp said.
Most city council members are in favor of annexing in the land located off Route ZZ, which connects I-70 Drive to Scott Boulevard.
Larry Potterfield donated the land to the city in March 2017. “It was very generous,” Trapp said.
ABC 17 News talked to many neighbors near the land and they each had varied opinions about what the city should do with the land.
Some neighbors said they would like to see a fire station.
“I’m also very supportive of building a fire station on that land, the Northwest Columbia has some of the slowest response times in the city,” Trapp said. “That is an ideal site to place a fire station.”
Other nearby residents didn’t like the idea of a humane society because of the noise it would create in the quiet community. Another neighbor said she wants to make sure the city leaves room for the animals, since it has been their home for years.
Others just want the city to do something about the flooding that happens on Strawn Road after heavy rainfall.
Trapp said there’s a good chunk of the land that cannot be developed on because it is in a floodplain.
When ABC 17 News talked to city council members at a city council meeting, Mayor Brian Treece said, “I think everyone can agree that’s probably more of a commercial development with a future access road to I-70 that connects with Scott Boulevard.”
