GC council votes against rezoning former Baptist Church lot

By: 
Michaela Kendall

GRUNDY CENTER – A heated discussion ensued inside the Grundy Center city council chambers Monday night, as a number of citizens living near or around the former First Baptist Church lot showed up to speak out against the possible development of a three-story apartment building on the property – a plan that was proposed to the City by Echo Development back in July, but has not yet been approved.
Their concerns came to a head as the City recently held a number of readings to rezone the property (which is currently single-family residential) first from single-family residential to multi-family residential, then from multi-family residential to commercial.
At Monday night’s meeting, as the council held the first reading on an ordinance to rezone the property to commercial. During the public forum, several citizens spoke out against the motion, expressing their concerns that if the city were to rezone the property, they believed the construction of the proposed apartment building would be a ‘done deal’ at that point.
One resident, Chris Ciddio, addressed the council with her worries.
“I grew up in Grundy Center, and my mom lives right across from the old Baptist church lot,” Ciddio began. “We’ve seen the church go from a lovely historical building to a vacant lot, and we knew eventually something would have to be there, but when we saw the plans for this huge three story building, we were shocked.”
She argued that the structure doesn’t fit with the historical courthouse and Victorian style homes down 7th Street, and that if the council agreed to let the apartment complex go up, it would be an eyesore.
“We all remember how concerned community members were to make sure the new library fit in with courthouse square and surrounding neighborhood,” she continued. “Why is that not a concern now? We all know Grundy Center needs housing, but why not build a one or two story structure that fits better with the area?”
For the full story, see this week's Grundy Register.

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