For the second time in 15 months, the Vandalia City Council has voted against allowing the former Kroger building to be turned into a storage building.
Back in April of last year, the City Council voted against allowing the building to be turned into a storage building. In recent months, the owner of the building has requested to allow the change as they have found potential interest in the property for that purpose. Brad Bowman, who is the Manager of Vandalia Capitol LLC was on hand for the meeting to talk about the potential for the building. He said any interested parties in turning the building into a storage facility have stopped when they found out the building was not currently zoned for that purpose. Alderman Andy Lester said he was not ready to give up on the building again being a retail business.
But, Bowman said he believes the market has spoken.
The ordinance the City Council voted on would have been to allow for storage facilities in downtown commercial as Special Use Only and would have been voted on case-by-case. The City Council voted it down with Aldermen Bret Brosman and Mike Hobler voting Yes and Aldermen Lester, Ken Hubler, Bob Bowen and Russ Stunkel voting No with Aldermen Steve Barker and Kenny Lewey absent from the meeting. Bowman said they would continue work to try and find a tenant for the building.
Wouldn’t it be beneficial to have a business in a vacant building rather than it sit empty? As long as it’s a reputable business why not? I am pretty sure the hope to fill it with a retail business has passed since the building has been vacant for about 20 years. If it was used as a storage facility, it might just bring in business to the Dollar General, Circle K, restaurants downtown, or liquor store. I would think some business is better than no business. I know I was trying to find a storage unit about a year ago and I couldn’t get anyone to call me back for about three weeks after I needed it. I had to go to a different town. I guess I am not following the logic on why they keep voting it down.