City adds more land to the zoning map

The Athens City Council began Monday’s committee meeting with a public hearing regarding the annexation of a piece of land on East State Street.“Essentially this is Columbia Gas on East State Street,” Mayor Paul Wiehl said. “We are annexing it in and we have to do a zoning designation.”The particular piece of land being annexed would be added to an area where there are multiple manufacturing businesses. The mayor claimed the addition of the old Columbia Gas site would make sense to be used as an addition to the businesses already there.“We thought we would just put it in there so it matches,” Wiehl said.The area is about 15 acres and the city plans to develop the location further.“Manufacturing is where we are going with it,” Wiehl said. “Just to be consistent.”Second Ward Rep. Jeffrey Risner raised the question of possibly turning the land into an area designated for the weekly city farmer’s market. Mayor Wiehl seemed positive about negotiating the addition as a new place for the market to meet.“It (the land) is open right now so in theory they could just drop it (the farmer’s market) right in there,” Wiehl said. “Manufacturing is pretty wide open as to what you could put in there, except the only prohibition is residential. In a manufacturing area you cannot have residential.”Some members seemed relieved to be adding the land to the city’s zoning map.“I would just like to say that this is the end to a multi-step project,” 4th Ward Rep. Chris Fahl said. “And it is good to have it finally coming to a finalization, so thanks to all the city employees who helped out with this and the landowners who have been patient and working along with everything.”Due to the land being originally outside of the city, the city did not have to pay city real estate tax. Now that it has become part of a manufacturing zone, the city will have to pay the tax.“It is not a lot because it is open space” Wiehl said.The eventual intention of the city is to divide the land up into three five-acre lots. City council has already had a first reading for the plan and will continue with the second reading of the ordinance at their April 15 meeting.