During the attorney report portion of the December meeting of the Argos Town Council, Town Attorney Derek Jones presented an agreement for legal services between himself and the Town of Argos. He stated that he was willing to continue to serve as the town attorney. The council unanimously approved the agreement.
The next thing for the council was a nepotism certification that each council member was to sign and give to Town Council President Erica Partin.
Conflict of Interest disclosures were the next thing on the attorney’s list. The disclosures were circulated through email. Once signed, Jones had to file them with the clerk and send them to the State Board of Accounts prior to the end of 2024. Jones stated that these forms didn’t need to be voted on since the council members were elected positions and not appointed positions.
The last thing that Jones had for the council was the sidewalk ordinance. Jones explained that there is a code of ordinances for the town as well as a code of zoning ordinances. The ordinance that the council looked at that evening was not to be voted on during that particular meeting.
“But this is just something I want to run this by the council first before we run this through the Plan Commission, have the public hearing, and then it would get back to you,” Jones said. “But it does kind of address certain issues and options that Jamie’s kind or run into over the course of the years. Hopefully it’s better. I don’t know if it’s ever going to be perfect, but it certainly does give him a little bit more umpf and a little bit more, I guess authority, to deal with things.”
The second part to that, something that the council hadn’t yet seen, is a matching grant program. “The big driving force behind that is that it does help with our town and liability. If there is an issue with the sidewalks.”
Jones informed the council that there is case law out there and that he’s talked to an attorney that’s dealing with a current case of this nature. He stated that the case said that if the town had one of these matching grant programs that shows that the town is willing and interested in trying to improve sidewalks, that it would help with the town’s liability position.
“So, that’s kind of phase two, but I wanted you guys to take a look at that this because, again, eventually this is going to wind up back to you so long as it is passed by the Plan Commission,” he said.
Council Member Shawn Harley had one concern. “The way I read this ordinance, is this is basically we’re considering a new developer coming into town, putting in new sidewalks in new residential area. This ordinance doesn’t really pertain to our existing infrastructure.”
Jones replied that Harley was correct. “We already have ordinances in place in the town code, but to be honest with you, if you look right now today. If I bought a lot, say on some street in the town and somebody comes to me from the town and says you got to put in a sidewalk, I’d say show me where. And they can’t. It’s just one of those nebulous things that I think a lot of things have been ‘Well, we’ve always done it this way,’ but the better way to do it is let’s put it in black and white so that everybody knows that’s expected of them.”
Moving on to other business, Paul Stearns informed the council that, with the help of Mark VanDerWeele, the Redevelopment Commission closed on the newly built home located at 106 Meadows. He presented the new owners of the home to the council. Harley welcomed the two to town.
The council then was presented with Ordinance 2024-18, rezoning of 200 West Walnut Street.
“So, it’s basically, again, there are two ordinances you’re going to have to consider here. They’re both rezoning the zoning map and I know that the first one here is for the property located at 200 West Walnut right across the street. It’s going to be rezoned from a B1 to a B2,” Jones said. This went through the Plan Commission procedure including the public hearing. The resolution was passed by the Plan Commission with a favorable recommendation.
Byers said that it was his recollection that the property should have been a B2 property for years. Clerk-Treasurer Lisa Mullaney explained that B2 is defined as a highway business and that B1 is defined as commercial business in the town’s zoning book. “So, it should have always been a B2 but it was B1 so long ago and it just never got fixed.”
The council approved Ordinance 2024-18 on all three readings.
The council then approved the rezoning of 9963 17th Road. Jones explained that it’s a property that is planned to be changed from an Ag to an L1. It is located near Sequel.
“A new concrete plant is basically the plan. This is again a change to the zoning map. And as you know I think right next to that is an L1 business that’s currently being operated,” Jones explained. He informed the council that ordinance went before the Plan Commission and had the necessary public hearing and received a favorable recommendation.
The ordinance was approved by the council. Byers was the only one that opposed the vote. After the ordinance was approved, Byers asked why the council voted to pass it. “But I guess I’m confused as to why we allowed for the construction of a concrete plant neighboring a brand-new subdivision.”
“On the return side of it, I can tell you why did we a subdivision right next to an industrial park?” said VanDerWeele. He went on to say that the plan was to partition the subdivision from the industrial park with trees.
Byers replied that he thought there was “quite a bit of distance” between the subdivision and the industrial park. “There’s more than there would be with the concrete plant.”
“There wouldn’t have to be though because we still own twenty acres there that, according to the zoning, could be within I believe is 25 feet of the property line. I’d have to look,” said VanDerWeele.
Council Vice President Ed Barcus stated that he didn’t see it as a hinderance to the location since the concrete plant would have to utilize dust control.
After there was some discussion between audience members and the council, Mullaney stated that rezoning the property as L1 means much more than just the current business.
“You have to remember concrete plant can pick up, take off, and they can resell the land. And now you’ve got a wider use. So, somebody could put a factory in there, somebody could, you know, do a lot of things with that piece of property. So, you’re very focused on what it’s going to be right now, but you also need to think about what it’s going to be in the future. And the Plan Commission decided that because it butted up to an H1 property, it was very feasible that that would expand that industrial park a little bit. Which was the whole point of buying the 675 acres. That’s what the Plan Commission decided. You guys had to decide on your own what you wanted to do,” said Mullaney.
It was asked if the ordinance went through both the Plan Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals or just the Plan commission. Mullaney replied that it only went through the Plan Commission.
The council then approved Ordinance 2024-15, the salary ordinance for 2025.
