First-floor housing on Square moves forward

Members of the Holton Planning Commission recently fine-tuned a proposed change in Holton’s zoning regulations that would allow first-floor residential spaces at the back of single-story buildings around Holton’s Town Square.

For business owners around the Square who are interested in modifying the back of their buildings to create a residential space, however, there’s still some work to do before the proposed zoning change becomes law — and there’s also the likelihood that modifying some of their business space into residential space may be too cost-prohibitive.

Holton Codes Enforcement Officer Jeff Draper reported that city planners, at their Monday, April 27 meeting, approved the change for single-story commercial buildings around the Square, as long as those buildings retained at least 51 percent of their floor space for commercial use, included a firewall between the commercial and residential spaces and established the residential area with its own separate city utility connection.

The change in zoning, if approved by the Holton City Commission, would apply to the city’s C-1 (general commercial district, specific to the Square) zoning regulations, but there’s still the matter of writing an ordinance, and having it approved by the city commission, to reflect what planners have said they want to see in the change, Draper said.

Writing that ordinance is now Draper’s task, he said, and once it’s completed, it will need to be reviewed by “legal counsel” before it goes back to planners for one last review, and if they approve it, it will go to the city commission for final approval.

“At that point, business owners can start making an application for a special use permit,” Draper said, noting the change in zoning would require business owners to get such a permit before partitioning their business space for residential use — but it won’t be as simple as putting up a wall to separate the building’s business and residential spaces.

The proposal to allow first-floor living spaces on the Square had been put forth late last year by Holton business owners Carolyn McKee and Dennis and Joni White as an option for allowing business owners on the Square to make better use of available commercial space, alleviate a housing shortage in the city and “make the Square commercially viable.”

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