The Unified Government Commission on Thursday night unanimously denied a permit to store work trucks and equipment on a property at 3201 Pomeroy Drive.
The issue previously had been before the City Planning Commission, which voted 7-1 for denial of the permit. The property had three previous violations.
The Pomeroy Drive neighborhood is a residential area, and residents submitted a petition against the permit, as well as wrote a letter and spoke at the meeting Thursday.
Commissioner Melissa Bynum, who lives near the area, said she had been working with the neighborhood about six months on this issue. She said the residents had lived with constant disruption from the heavy trucks for a long while.
The property had been zoned agricultural, and one nearby resident stated that there was nothing to allow storage of large, heavy trucks on an agricultural-zoned property. The resident wanted the industrial construction equipment moved somewhere else.
Commissioner Jane Philbrook said she was disappointed that the property’s zoning had been changed to agricultural, and was not used that way.
In another item on Thursday night, renewal of a special use permit for a group home and emergency shelter for children at 1634 S. 29th St. was approved. There are a maximum of six children in the home. The permit was approved 7-1, with Commissioner Tom Burroughs voting no.
A neighbor had submitted a protest petition with eight signatures against the group home, but it was thrown out by the planning staff for not having enough signatures. The petition did not have the 20 percent of signatures required, according to the planning staff. Gunnar Hand, planning director, said Ruby Park is just behind the residence, so that is why it did not have signatures of 20 percent of the surrounding area.
There were no violations on the property since it first received a permit, according to Hand.
Terry Mason, the applicant for the permit, said the children and the community were safe. The children were not out in the community unless they were accompanied by a staff member, she said. She added there were alarms on all the windows and doors. She said she tried to address the concerns of the neighbors.
Commissioner Christian Ramirez thanked Mason for providing resources and services for children, and made the motion to approve the permit. “Not every child is fortunate enough to have a good home,” he said.
Also at Thursday night’s meeting, the plan review of the Reardon Center redevelopment project in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, was approved, without discussion, as part of the consent agenda. The project at 5th and Minnesota includes a new, smaller Reardon Center, a fitness center, a building with 94 apartments, retail space and some nearby athletic fields. Additional apartments had been added to the plan.
Several other items on the agenda also were approved.