Oskaloosa Planning And Zoning Tackles Alley Sales

Planning and Zoning Commission member Brian Booy discusses alley vacation with his fellow board members.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Alley sales are not usually one of those things that draws a crowd, but a pair of sales on the agenda brought concerns and questions from residents.

The first alley sale the vacation of 194′ x 16′ of the North-South alley between South 6th Street and South 7th Street beginning at 8th Avenue East and traveling South to the East-West alley.

The commission approved the vacation with the stipulation that access easement be in place to allow residents on the 900 block of South Second St. access to the alley area in order to access their property from the rear. The measure goes on for city council for three readings.

The second alley vacation was broken into two separate requests.The agenda item originally read, Consider vacation and sale of 194′ x 16.5′ of the East-West alley adjacent to 411 N H St and 901 C Ave W and 60′ x 16.5′ adjacent to 402 North I Street.

The separation of the vacation requests was broken into the vacation of the 194′ x 16.5′ adjacent to 411N H St, with the second then being the one adjacent to 402 North I Street because there was two separate applications.

The vacation of the alley next to 402 North I Street was not passed because it was stated in the application the land owner was worried about being able to maintain access to their property. With the earlier discussion of allowing access easement as in the previous case, she would have access either way. Application to vacate the 60′ x 16.5′ alley located at 402 North I was denied with a 3-2 vote from the commission.

The initial discussion on this vacation was to allow a land owner enough room to build handicap access to a garage area to the home. Currently, the size of the property isn’t large enough with current setback rules to facilitate the building of the garage area. With the purchase of the alley, it would give them enough room legally to build.

The vacation was approved as the earlier one with the measure going on to the city council for three readings for final approval.

The final agenda item was to consider a motion to remove the parking restriction along the West side of North 12th Street from E Avenue East to F Avenue East and also to establish a no parking zone along the East side of the same length of street.

After some discussion about concern over hospital parking spillage onto the street, the commission approved the measure.