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2009-11-21

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Thursday, October 01, 2009 11:19 AM

Former store could be your next home

Property owners ask city to rezone former Town & Country building for residential use

By VICKIE MOSS, Herald Public Affairs Editor

Ted and Karen Fogle need to get creative.

The Fogles have been trying to find a business to rent the building they own at 2707 Kingman Road, at the corner of Kingman Road and U.S. 59.

If the Fogles can’t find a business to rent the building, they instead might ask someone to live there.

The building has sat empty since the previous tenant, Town & Country, moved out this past spring. The building was built in 2000 to house Windy Pines, a landscaping business owned by the Fogles until they retired in 2005.

With the recent economic downturn, no one is interested in locating a business there, Ted Fogle said. And he doesn’t see much hope of the situation changing.

In fact, the empty building has become a target for break-ins and thefts. Some copper wiring and plumbing have been stripped from the building during recent break-ins. The building’s location on the edge of the city limits doesn’t get patrolled by police very often, which makes it a prime target for thieves, Fogle said.

Fogle said he will lose insurance on the building Jan. 1 unless he is able to find someone to occupy the building.

The Fogles asked the Ottawa planning commission to change the building to a lower-level commercial zoning. Such a zoning allows residential use of up to 50 percent of the ground floor of a building.

Planning commissioners scheduled a public hearing Oct. 14 for the zoning change but had some concerns about the Fogles’ request for a conditional-use permit to allow residential use.

The building uses holding tanks as a sanitation system, and planning commissioner Ken Davidson said he believes the sanitation system should be upgraded.

“I can certainly sympathize,” Davidson said. “You’ve got to have somebody out there to watch the place.”

A public hearing on the conditional-use permit also will be Oct. 14 at the planning commission’s regular monthly meeting at Ottawa City Hall, 101 S. Hickory St.

Ted Fogle said he was surprised to hear the concerns about the sanitation system. He plans to spend very little money to convert part of the building to residential, which would be temporary.

He prefers to find a business tenant, but said that doesn’t appear likely.

He and his wife also might consider using the building as their own residence, or even starting another business enterprise.

“We’re retired, and that was our only income,” Fogle said. “We’ll entertain about anything right now. I really can’t go back in business again, but we may have to.”