No restrictions for alley buildings
Published Nov. 27, 2007
The City Council voted on Nov. 19 not to adopt an ordinance that would establish restrictions on the use of an alley as a main entrance to a business.
The only requirement now is that the alley in front of the business be named so there is an address.
The ordinance would have required the business that wants to have its primary entrance and exit in an alley to receive permission from the city manager before it receives a building permit.
According to the proposed ordinance, the city manager would have consulted with appropriate department heads to determine if the alley could accommodate emergency vehicles, if water and ice accumulate in the alley, if arrangements have been made for snow removal and if the business would interfere with utility services or trash collection in the alley.
Fifth Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser supports allowing businesses to put their entrances in alleys and did not support this ordinance.
"I voted against it because I didn't think it was a fair ordinance because it was basically having one person making the decision," Nauser said. "I think an ordinance should have clear and definite boundaries, but the way it was written was subjective."
The subjective nature of the application of these restrictions was Nauser's primary concern.
"One of the criteria was emergency vehicle access, and I think it needs to specifically define what access requirements there are," she said. "Does it need to be a certain width?"
Nauser also said it is necessary to define what "satisfactory arrangements" are for snow removal.
Mayor Darwin Hindman also supports businesses operating out of alleys and opposed the ordinance.
"The reason I voted against the ordinance is because I did not think the standards the ordinance contained were appropriate," he said.
Hindman said he didn't think the provision for arrangement of snow removal was appropriate because if there were a change in owner, there could be a change in arrangement. Also, he said there is not a similar requirement to receive a building permit on a sidewalk or a parking lot, so there shouldn't be one for a building permit on an alley.
"I will vote for a reasonable set of standards, but I will not delay development unnecessarily," Hindman said. "I think development on alleys will be very good for downtown. They allow for more retail activity downtown."
The City Council has looked for involvement from the Historic Preservation Commission and the Columbia Special Business District.
"We have forwarded on to the Historic Preservation Commission to look at the naming of the alleys," Nauser said. "We've asked them to look at historic names for each individual alley that would tie into an owner or a store related to the alley."
Nauser said the council hoped this process would help with marketing concepts based on the alley names or even increase tourism to see the historically named alleys.
"We have also forwarded this on to the Special Business District," Nauser said. "We've asked them to begin looking at what they think would be important for the development of alleys."
Nauser said she expects the process to take several months, but she also said she thinks it is worth it.
"I think that this will bring more character to our downtown, so I'm looking forward to the final outcome," she said. "And hopefully, we'll able to move the process along quickly so people who want to have future projects aren't being held up too horribly long."
