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Master Plan Expert: Rezone Hooper & Sullivan

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By Dave Freneaux
    Next Tuesday Central’s City Council will have the opportunity to again consider the application to rezone the northeast corner of Hooper and Sullivan.  If this is approved it would allow the owner to tear down the partially condemned building and replace it with a new and smaller office and retail complex.  The rezoning was denied in October by a 3-2 vote with Council Members Messina, Washington and LoBue voting to deny.
    The reason given for the denial was that the City Center overlay of the Master Plan was not yet complete and that additional zoning restrictions might be created at a later date.  Fortunately, Nathan Gaspard of ERM, the consulting company hired to create Central’s Master Plan, has now weighed in on the matter and recommends approval of the rezoning application.
    In an email sent to city officials on November 26th Mr. Gaspard states “…it seems you have two ways to go on these requests:  1) Approve re-zoning requests if they make sense……(In this case, the property has been in commercial use before, has a majority of commercial use around it, and is indicated as City Center on the Land Use Plan which would support commercial uses.)    2) Deny all re-zoning requests in areas that are expected to be in the City Center Overlay district until the overlay is finalized and adopted (thereby potentially losing the businesses, potential jobs, and sales tax revenues that could be generated in the interim period.)”
    In a November 27th email Mr. Gaspard states that the Hooper and Sullivan property should be rezoned “because I felt that the chances of the project advancing the ‘transformation’ (of City Center) were better than having the existing structure remain in the dilapidated state it is currently in.”  
    So, with the expert hired to create the master plan, and the City Staff, and the Planning and Zoning Commission, all in favor of the rezoning application, it would seem that all obstacles to approval of the rezoning have been removed.  Now, a favorable vote from the City Council next Tuesday would allow economic development to take another step forward in Central.
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