Changes Recommended for O'Fallon Title IV Land Use, Zoning Codes

O’Fallon’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved a recommendation for changes to the city’s Title IV land use and zoning code at its regular Thursday night session.

If the City Council approves the commission’s recommendations, conditional use permits would then be transferable when a business owner sells his or her business, said David Woods, O’Fallon’s director of planning and development.

City administrators will still go over the requirements of each permit when the transfer is made, but the move cuts down on red tape by omitting a second application process for the same business, said Woods.

Other changes would include the way the city classifies and defines certain businesses. Pet grooming services would be separate from pet kennels and boarding for purposes of applying for conditional use permits. Barbershops, beauty, nail and tanning salons and others would be combined under the heading of personal care services. Additionally, all day care services would have to apply for conditional use permits.

In other new business, Bill Davis of Bill Davis, Inc. presented a plan to add an 8,000 square feet structure to the existing 14,000 square feet Boys and Girls Club-owned facility at 3 Aspen Point Drive.

Davis said that one side of the new buildings would be reserved exclusively for the River City Robots team, O’Fallon’s area entrant in . Davis said he'd been to recent competitions and was impressed by the kids' excitement.

“You just don’t see that kind of enthusiasm for engineering-type work,” said Davis. The board approved the motion for action unanimously.

AT&T and the Black & Veatch Corporation filed three separate requests to add additional tenants at three cellular telecommunications towers in the area. The towers in question are located at 3000 Highway K, 1185 Turtle Creek Drive and 2299 Technology Drive. A representative from AT&T said that no changes to the towers would be visible from the outside.

“This is what we want to do,” said commission chairman Charles Brunjes, “We want multiple tenants in the towers, not multiple towers.” The commission voted in favor of all three motions unanimously.

David Glover, an architect with , presented the fast food chain’s plans to add an additional drive through lane at their 1001 North Main Street location at the expense of five current parking spaces.

Glover said McDonalds was also remodeling the exterior facades at that location and many others in an attempt to overhaul the company’s image. The commission considered the motion and recommended it to the city council 12-0.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that Bill Davis of Bill Davis, Inc. presented a plan to add two 4,000 square feet structures to the Boys and Girls Club facility. O'Fallon Patch regrets the error.