A new year will bring changes in elected leadership, including mayor, to Fulton's city council, but in the meantime, some business continues.
When the City Council meets, starting at 6:30 p.m. tonight, one piece of unfinished business will have been carried over from 2018. City Council members are expected to approve a request from the YMCA of Callaway County which is planning to host its third annual Cocoa Hustle 5K on Jan. 19 (register at the YMCA).
Then there's all the new stuff for 2019, including a flurry of rezoning requests. At 7 p.m., three public hearings will commence.
The first concerns rezoning a property at the intersection of East 8th and State streets, formerly the home to a shoe factory from M-2 Planned Industrial to R-2 Residential.
"The property was zoned to allow the shoe factory to be in operation there," City Administrator Bill Johnson said.
Now the city has a new use for that site.
"That ground is planned for the new parks and recreation center," Johnson added. "The city needs to comply with its own zoning regulations; an R-2 zoning allows the rec center to be built."
The second tract of land is at West 13th Street and Westminster Avenue. City officials will decide whether to rezone it from M-1 Industrial to R-3 Residential.
"About 30 years ago, the city bought 40 acres from Harbison-Walker brick factory," Johnson said.
On the back side of that parcel, the city constructed its new warehouse complex, leaving the front acreage an open, grassy area with pine trees across Westminster Avenue from William Wood's stabling.
"It's still zoned manufacturing, but due to the composition of the area and neighborhood, I don't know that this is a prime location for a factory," Johnson added.
The third tract of land is at Martin Luther King and North Hospital drives, just east of the Route F/U.S. 54 interchange, from C-3 Commercial to C-2 Commercial. A 150-bed skilled nursing facility is planned there, as previously reported.
Johnson didn't know what was being planned for two other spaces being renovated (an old NAPA auto parts on East Fifth Street and former church storefront on Court Street downtown).
After the public hearing, the rezoning of all three tracts will be proposed as ordinances and their first readings.
Candidate filings for those wishing to run for mayor, city attorney, and first-through-fourth council members will close at 5 p.m. Jan. 15. Candidate packets are still available from the city clerk. For more information, call 573-592-3111.