City moving forward with Strawn Road property annexation

The City of Columbia is moving forward with plans to annex a 47 acre piece of land located at 804 N. Strawn Road.

The land was donated to the city in March 2017. Council members spoke in favor of annexing the land at Monday night’s city council meeting, but the annexation hearing will not take place until their next meeting later this month.

While the land has already been zoned for residential use, city leaders are still deciding what to do with it. Mayor Brian Treece told ABC 17 News that he’s in favor of using the land for commercial development.

“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,” Treece said of the property, which is located off Route ZZ just outside Columbia city limits.

Other uses for the land have also been discussed. Ward 2 City Councilman Michael Trapp said he wants to see a new fire station built on the property as well as a new building for the Central Missouri Humane Society.

“We desperately need a fire station in that area. That would serve the Valley View neighborhood, the area on Stadium North of the mall, which has a slow response time, so I think that’s the most critical piece,” he said.

Treece said the revenue generated through any new commercial development could also be used to reinvest in city services.

“Since it was a gift, our basis for it is zero dollars. If we were to bring it in as commercial property, we could sell off various parts of that and use that money to either reinvest in city services or, you know, buy some more strategic acquisitions for us, whether that’s a new fire station, or those other types of capitol improvements with these dollars,” he said.

A public hearing on the annexation was held at Monday night’s city council meeting, but only one resident came forward. Resident John Clark said the city should ask the public what they would like to do with the property.

Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala said it’s too soon to decide on zoning before the city know what it’s going to do with the land.

“It makes me nervous about immediately up-zoning something before we’ve had time to really decide what we do with the disposition of this property,” he said.