Kirksville council rezones two parcels to allow Preferred Family Health Care expansion

The Kirksville City Council on first and second readings approved two ordinances rezoning properties on East LaHarpe and Halliburton streets from residential districts to C-1 local business to allow Preferred Family Health Care to proceed with a planned expansion.

Ashley Young, director of community and economic development, told the council the LaHarpe site is the longtime home of Preferred and its predecessors and became a nonconforming use as the zoning code changed. Young said the organization learned it was nonconforming while pursuing roughly a $7,000,000 federal grant and a 50-50 match to build a new facility immediately south of its existing building and elected to seek rezoning so the project would not jeopardize the funding. "They agreed to pursue the rezone at the same time as they're moving forward so as not to lose those grant monies for the community," Young said.

Young said the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the LaHarpe rezoning 6-0 and the Halliburton rezoning 4-2. She explained the Halliburton parcel is adjacent to a drive that provides access to the Preferred campus; rezoning that parcel avoids the need for a separate easement process that staff considered less clean. "The cleanest way to go about this would be to simply have the property rezoning combined that they already have ... so they decided to go that route," Young said.

A resident, Megan Snyder, addressed the council during the public comment period and expressed support for the services planned, saying the community "needs something like that." Council members asked staff whether concerns raised at Planning and Zoning were about zoning or construction; Young said the resident who spoke had been concerned primarily about construction noise and disruption, not the rezoning itself. The council then approved both ordinances on first and second readings.

Why it matters: The rezonings remove a code-based barrier for a long-standing health-care provider and safeguard eligibility for federal matching funds tied to the proposed facility. Planning commission recommendations were split on one parcel, and neighbors raised concerns about construction impacts that staff said would be handled through construction permitting and mitigation measures.

What happens next: With the ordinances adopted, Preferred Family Health Care can move forward with the project and the grant match; staff will work with the applicant on permitting and any noise/traffic mitigation during construction.