Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: News

Mayor John Inyart laughs following a comment made about his missing last week's snow storm during Tuesday night's City Council meeting in City Hall. (Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

In a fifteen-minute meeting Tuesday, the Charleston City Council waived zoning ordinances for two proposed building projects.

One of those potential projects would build a two-story apartment building at 1701 and 1703 9th St., replacing two rental houses.

The building would have four four-bedroom apartments, though the lots where they would be built are only zoned to allow for eight two-bedroom apartments.

The council unanimously approved a "variance of title" to allow for the new apartments.

"(The variance of title) allows for the same number of bedrooms in this facility; it just allows them to be split up differently," said Mayor John Inyart.

The council also granted a "variance of title" to Kirby Johnson of Gavina Graphics at 1920 8th St. Johnson plans to build a 1,652-square-foot addition to the business.

With the new addition, the building would cover 37 percent of the land on which it is built, while the city's zoning ordinances only allow for 30 percent of land to be covered. In the variance request, Johnson said he plans to add more workers, though he did not say how many.

"We're glad to see you're doing well out there," Inyart told Johnson during the meeting.

The council also requested a grant from the Illinois Community Development Assistance Program. The grant would be used to help replace the 125-year old water main that runs from the water treatment plant on McKinley Avenue to Lincoln Avenue.

The city has also applied for federal funding to help build the new water main.


Joe Astrouski can be reached at 581-7942 or at jmastrouski@eiu.edu.

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