|
||||
|
December 13, 2001 By Janelle Holden With the approval of the Cortez City Council, a landmark theater and bar will change to a church, a bed-and-breakfast will become an assisted-living facility, and a new learning center will emerge in Cortez this year. At Tuesday’s meeting, the council granted Grace Fellowship Evangelical Free Church a conditional-use permit to occupy what was once the Creamery Restaurant and Theater, just north of Main Street. The 45-member church plans to transform the theater area of the building into a sanctuary, and use the dining area for other events and a nursery. The restaurant has been for sale for the past two years, and the owners decided to close it earlier this year. Right now the church is leasing the building, but has the first option to buy it. John Kelly, the agent for the church, told the council there are no plans to alter the building’s structure, but said if the church purchases the property it would pave the existing gravel parking lot in the back. The council also approved a conditional-use permit to change the Maple Street Bed and Breakfast into an assisted -living facility for five elderly residents. The upper level of the house will be used for administrative offices and a living area for caregivers. Jeff Reinhart, the city’s zoning administrator, told the council the new facility would likely have less of an impact on the neighborhood than the existing bed-and-breakfast because traffic and noise would be reduced. Ann Miller, director of Southwest Board of Cooperative Service’s Adult Education Program, asked the council to approve a conditional-use permit for a 6,000-square-foot Unlimited Learning Center on East Second Street. If all the funding comes through, the center could provide a permanent home for adult learning programs. They include GED preparation, job development, employment retention training, life-skills instruction, technology/computer literacy training, reading and writing skills, and distance education. Miller estimated the center will serve a minimum of 300 adult students per year — mostly between the ages of 16 and 21. "We’ve never had a center where we can base our equipment," said Miller. The council also adopted a revised land-use code. Originally adopted in 1996, the land-use code has been amended numerous times since then and city staff thought it was time to codify all the changes. Other than correcting spelling and typographical errors, the revised code had few changes, said Reinhart. One change was made in the zoning map, however. A section of the Cortez Sanitation District’s and Aileen Maxwell’s property in the southern portion of the city was left off the map. The map was amended and zoned partly residential and part commercial highway. "Very little was changed — some tweaking occurred," said Reinhart. One thing that did change is the standard height of fences. They rose from six feet to eight feet, a fact council member Jim Herrick noted with humor. "Next year will we go for moats?" asked Herrick.
|
||||
|
Copyright © 2001 the Cortez
Journal. All rights reserved. |
