Lowell planners grant temporary permit

LOWELL — The Planning Commission approved a large- scale development on Tuesday in addition to granting a temporary conditional use permit and tabling another.

Commissioners considered conditional use permits to add U-Haul leasing and towing services at an existing used car dealership at 921 N. Bloomington Street.

Business operators apply for conditional use permits in order to use property for new business functions. Once the business receives the conditional use permit, it begins using its property in the specified way.

The U-Haul leasing business has already been in operation for over a year, Shawn Keller told commissioners.

Keller said he wasn’t aware that he needed to apply for a conditional use permit when he began the service. Instead, he said he heard about the requirement recently when he learned he needed a similar permit to start towing services out of the same location.

“Changing the use of the property would initiate the need to bring the property up to commercial code,” according to a staff report.

The additional uses of the property will prompt a largescale development, the report states.

Commissioner Michael Phillips said he was concerned about setting a poor precedent, but the business operator would likely have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to update the property and bring it to commercial standards.

“I can’t see that being financially viable,” Phillips said.

City Attorney Tom Kieklak said the commission could table the request or create a temporary permit for one to two months. The temporary permit would allow the business to continue running while also requiring the applicant to work with city staff to figure out the property updates that are necessary.

The commission could decide from a staff report in the next 60 days whether to make the permit longer under certain conditions, Kieklak said.

“It’s just a way of looking at it that’s not just saying yes or no, but we do want to bring you along. We realize if we said ‘stop until you have a quarter of a million dollars to pay’, then you’re going to kill the business. You don’t want to do that,” he said.

Commissioners unanimously voted to grant a conditional use permit for 60 days, allowing the U- Haul service to continue to operate.

They also unanimously voted to table for up to 60 days the conditional use permit for a towing service at the same location.

In other business, the commission approved a large-scale development by Scott Equipment Rental at 505 N. Goad Springs Road.

Commissioners unanimously voted to support the development, including a waiver that would allow the business to use a gravel surface lot rather than a paved asphalt lot for parking heavy equipment.

Heavy equipment could damage a paved lot, so a gravel surface makes more sense, according to a staff report.