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Resident asks council to revisit alley vacation after planning and zoning variance denied
Summary
Clarence Gordon asked Sioux City Council to reconsider a planning-and-zoning decision that denied vacation of an alley behind his property; staff said utilities and multiple adjacent owners complicate a partial vacation and council agreed to direct staff to revisit the matter and schedule reconsideration.
Clarence Gordon told the Sioux City Council on April 24 he needs an alley vacation so he can install a carport behind his property at 2310 South Clinton Street.
Gordon said planning and zoning denied his earlier vacation request and approved only a variance; he told the council he would offer permanent easements to neighbors and that the alley has never been opened since it was platted in 1889. He described fences, garages and a dead-end sign and said the lot of neighbors behind the alley would not be deprived of access.
Staff (field services manager Patrick Simons) and council members explained barriers: notice to 26 adjoining properties would be required, utility lines (a phone/cable line) run through the alley, and vacating an alley could create small taxable lots the city would have to manage if purchasers back out. Staff said the board of adjustment granted a variance but the vacation question would need to return to planning and zoning for reconsideration or be placed on a future council agenda for review.
Council members discussed options including remanding the item to the board, initiating reconsideration by motion on the council floor, or directing staff to re-notice the neighborhood. The council agreed to acknowledge the board-of-adjustment actions on the April 14 report and later moved to reconsider Gordon’s item at a future meeting; staff was asked to renotice the neighborhood and to provide procedural clarification on any statutory waiting period for a vacation request.
The council took no final action to vacate the alley that night; members instructed staff to research procedural options and to bring the item back for reconsideration in approximately three weeks.
