Planning and Zoning Commission approves special use to convert 902 Missouri Ave. to long-term rental

The Planning and Zoning Commission on June 9 approved a special-use permit allowing the property at 902 Missouri Avenue to convert from a short-term rental to a long-term residential rental.

Sarah (staff member) told the commission the property sits in a C-1 commercial district where short-term rentals are allowed by right but long-term residential use is permitted if the building meets specific requirements. "The building has to be older than 50 years. It has to have or previously been used as a residential structure," she said, adding that her review showed the building is more than 50 years old and had been used as a residence.

The staff presentation said the corridor is zoned C-1, with R-1B single-family districts to the east and west; staff characterized the surrounding area as historically residential that has shifted toward mixed uses. Sarah said the site has five parking spaces and that, based on the commission's records, there have been no issues with the property's prior short-term rental use. "Long term use would have, in my mind, less of an impact because you don't have, like, large, groups of people coming to this property," she said.

Applicant Edward Schmell, identified in the agenda as the property owner, told the commission he bought the property about three years earlier and that it had been in poor condition before a recent rehabilitation. "We thought this would be a great, short term rental, you know, property...some other things didn't work out. So it...has really been sitting vacant and not performing at all. So we thought, well, let's just see if we can lease it out," Schmell said. He described the house as a single-unit, four-bedroom, four-bath structure that he said is now fully rehabilitated.

Commission members asked whether the unit is single-family or multifamily and whether the applicant planned additional improvements; Schmell said it is one unit and that no further work was planned. After public and board questions, a motion to approve the special-use permit was made and seconded; commissioners voted in favor and the motion passed.

The commission noted that special-use conditions can be revisited if the property generates problems in the future. The permit transfers zoning permission for long-term residential use under the conditions described by staff and recorded by the commission.