Marshall County Building Commissioner Chuck DeWitt came before the Argos Town Council last week with some information about efforts to tidy up the downtown area.
As a reminder, the Town of Argos entered into an intergovernmental agreement with DeWitt last January and he has been assisting with various zoning and planning matters ever since.
Over the summer, the council authorized DeWitt to send letters to downtown business owners to alert them of existing rules in the Town’s land-use book that weren’t being followed, in order to help clean-up and organize the visible spaces in downtown buildings.
One rule that was emphasized in the letters informed owners that utilizing the retail space of a building for storage or warehousing is prohibited.
The businesses were given a few months to take the recommendations under advisement to get their buildings into compliance.
Clerk-Treasurer Lisa Mullaney said DeWitt is planning to do a walk-through of the downtown area with his part-time worker and some town officials to determine which businesses have addressed the compliance issues and which ones will need to have another letter sent.
She noted that there are fees associated with not complying with land-use codes and stated that if a business is found to violate a nuisance ordinance as well, they could potentially receive a visit from the town’s code-enforcement officer, Police Chief Corey Bowman, and also face fines related to the ordinance violation.
