May 06, 2008 12:19 am
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By Debby Woodin
dwoodin@joplinglobe.com
The City of Refuge will be allowed to continue providing a place for some homeless residents to sleep at night for an additional three months, according to action by the Joplin City Council.
The voted Monday night to extend until Aug. 1 the deadline for the ministry to halt using its leased quarters in an old warehouse it occupies at 502 E. Seventh St. for shelter purposes. The shelter aspect of the operation was being forced out after the council declined March 3 to change the zoning on the building.
After the council’s vote on the zoning issue, Dan Anderson, the ministry’s leader, asked for some time to try to find a place to which to relocate, and the council gave him 60 days.
The building was found to have a number of city code violations that had been temporarily resolved, but conditions at the building still expose the city to liability if there were injuries, the council has been advised.
Anderson told the council Monday night that he received a letter from the city staff a few days ago advising him that sheltering activities were to stop by May 3, the end of the council’s 60-day amnesty. He said he was told by the city staff that he could continue to provide meals at the site, but people could not sleep in the building overnight.
Anderson said he moved residents out of the building, and they have been staying at churches or private homes by invitation. He said he has stayed with the shelter residents rather than going to his own home at night.
Mayor Gary Shaw and City Manager Mark Rohr explained that the city has been gathering information on what services are available to the homeless and who provides services in preparation for a city summit to be held on the issue.
“There’s a lot more involved than we thought,” Rohr said about preparing for the summit.
Councilman Jon Tupper drew applause from the audience when he said some people have made wrong assumptions about who is homeless and why they are homeless.
The mayor said he has concerns about people who are homeless, but he believes he has to represent residents, and he is concerned about the liability the old building poses to residents if it creates a problem.
Councilman Benjamin Rosenberg made a motion to allow the ministry to continue to offer shelter services in the warehouse until Aug. 1. The motion was seconded by Jim West. The motion was approved 5-4, with Rosenberg, West, Tupper, Melodee Colbert-Kean and Bill Scearce voting in favor of it, and Shaw, Morris Glaze, Phil Stinnett and Mike Woolston voting against it.
In other business, the council heard from a number of residents on two zoning issues.
About 30 people who live in the Eastmorland neighborhood turned out to oppose a request by property developer Jeff Majzoub to rezone land on the southwest corner of 17th Street and Range Line Road from residential to commercial for a retail center.
Keith Grebe spoke on behalf of many of the residents. “The neighborhood opposes it because it goes too deep into a residential area,” he told the council.
Mike Mellinger, who works for the developer, told the council that a retail center for the property would be designed to flow traffic onto 17th Street, where there is now a traffic light, to ease the increase in traffic.
A traffic light was installed 17th Street and Range Line Road, and the state rebuilt the intersection at 20th Street and Range Line Road.
That redesigned intersection has forced traffic at the Bel-Aire Shopping Center through the residential area along Highview and Texas avenues, residents said.
Scearce, in response to the opposition, introduced a motion to limit the retail development to a depth of 170 feet instead of the 224 feet proposed by the developer. That motion died for lack of a second after the developer said the plan could not go ahead without more room than 170 feet because of city setback requirements.
The council then approved a motion to allow the rezoning, with Glaze, Shaw and Scearce dissenting.
Grebe said after the vote that the neighborhood will continue to work against commercial development extending too far off Range Line Road.
“I think we are disappointed that they have chosen commercial interests over the value of home ownership,” Grebe said of the council’s decision. He also told his neighbors to remember the vote at future council elections.
The council also heard opposition to rezoning property north of Suzanne’s Natural Foods at 1723 E. 32nd St. While one resident spoke in favor of the proposal by owner Suzanne Nelson, other residents and a business owner complained about trash, heavy traffic and other nuisances.
The council approved a change to planned commercial zoning from residential that will require Nelson to come back for approval of any specific plans to change the property.
Sale vote
The City of Refuge ministry has made an offer to buy the First Baptist Church building at Seventh Street and Pearl Avenue. Church members are going to vote Wednesday on whether to sell. One church member has publicly expressed disapproval of the proposal, and she and some business people downtown have been circulating petitions against locating the shelter at the church.
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