East Columbia residents consider legal action after zoning commission vote
A group of homeowners in east Columbia say a new office building planned for the area may be illegal.
Members of the Hilldelle Homeowners Association told the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission that they’ve consulted an attorney about a decades-old covenant that guarantees only homes can be built in the area. Despite this, the commission voted 5-2 to recommend the city council rezone the land on Old 63 between Amelia Street and McAlester Street from single-family residential to allow for office use.
Commissioners Tootie Burns and Michael MacMann voted against the plan.
Access Arts, a nonprofit organization, owns the land, and plans to sell it to Central Design Group for that business’s new office. City planner Rusty Palmer said the building would include a parking lot for the business. Hilldelle residents, though, said they would pursue legal action should the planned sale and construction continue.
“Every person that moved here when they bought that property, it was included on their deed, it’s a restricted residential subdivision,” said homeowner John Randolph. “It’s one residence per lot, it’s one home per lot.”
Shawna Johnson, executive director of Access Arts, said the opposition put up by Hilldelle residents – neighbors to the organization – stung. The group, she said, worked hard to maintain the property, a field dotted with trees and water running through it. Dwindling public funding for the arts has made it hard for the organization to operate, she said, and Access Arts would benefit from the sale.
“This sale will be a huge windfall for us,” Johnson said, “enabling us for the first time in the history of the organization get out of debt.”
Both sides of the argument said the situation was distressing. Johnson said the criticism of the project came from people she considered supporters of Access Arts’ mission, a group started by a woman who grew up in the Hilldelle neighborhood. The nonprofit itself is located just north of the land in question. While many speakers against the plan said they supported the group, they want the land to either be developed as homes or left as-is.
“Let’s build apple trees. Let’s make terraces. Let’s make it something for children to learn and to grow, and not make it a structure,” said Rita Fleischmann, a resident and property owner in the Benton Stephens neighborhood.
Some residents also feared flooding in the area with the new office. The land would need to be raised up to be level with Old 63, according to city staff. Jerry Campbell with Central Design Group said he designed the building to direct the flow of water underneath the office and Old 63, and overflow water would sit around the area.
Further complicating the issue is the homeowner association’s vote in favor of the project. Campbell said his meetings with the HOA seemed positive, and the group’s vote meant a waiver of the legal covenant. Many members of the group said that vote wasn’t representative of the whole, with many key members missing and most votes cast by members of Access Arts.
The Columbia City Council will get the final vote on the issue.
