CHENEY – The City Council spend a considerable amount of time during their regular meeting Tuesday, Jan. 25, debating a Planning Commission recommendation to change zoning regulations concerning the business park.
Cheney’s business park surrounds the Cheney Free Press, Allpak Containers and Haakon Industries on West First Street.
City administrator Mark Schuller said that through a series of surveys, a city planner found out that the business park is much more restrictive than neighboring business parks.
So, the Planning Commission wanted to make specific changes to “make it more attractive to a broader range of business and industry,” Schuller said.
The entire uses table for the business park would be expanded, he said. Some of the expansions include allowing conditional-use for indoor and major event entertainment, allowing motor vehicle sales and services, and even colleges and community recreation.
The Council had a thoughtful and passionate discussion about the zoning changes coming to the business park.
While the entire council was in agreement expanding the park is a good idea, there was a fair amount of disagreement when it came to the subject of storage units.
Councilman Dan Hilton was adamant that expanding the business park to include storage units would be short-sided because of high income industries that could potentially occupy the space.
Councilman Vince Barthels said he believes drawing a hard line over storage units doesn’t make sense because storage facilities play an important role in communities such as Cheney.
He said storage units play a valuable role in our particular community because a large portion of the population doesn’t stay here long-term while they’re attending EWU, so they need a place to store their belongings.
He also pointed to the storage facility by the Amazon Fulfillment center that received a $10 million build fund as a counter that storage units can’t be profitable.
This was Ordinance Y-9’s first reading, which means it has two more opportunities to be debated and changed before coming up for a vote.
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