Courthouse annex building heads for second hearing

The Le Mars Board of Zoning Adjustment will host a second hearing on whether to allow a setback variance and conditional use permit to erect the annex building on the southeast corner of the courthouse block. The hearing will be at a zoning meeting 8:15 a.m. Thursday in the city council chambers.

Earlier this month, the city zoning board denied the Plymouth County Supervisor's request for the variance and permit.

The supervisors have been planning the annex building for more than a year to help ease cramped quarters in courthouse offices.

Last week, after receiving word the city board would not grant the variance and permit, the supervisors found a section in the city's code that, in their view, exempted the county from city zoning requirements.

Supervisor Don Kass said city zoning regulations do not cover "public improvements."

The annex building, he said, would fall under the code's definition of public improvement.

The supervisors revisited the topic Tuesday at their regular meeting.

"The city attorney did not agree with our reading of the city code," Supervisor Craig Anderson said. "We've reapplied for setback variance and also a conditional use (permit)."

Minor changes were made to help soften concern about parking, Anderson said.

"The setback has changed a little bit," he said. "We're going to try to line up the front of the building up with the fronts of the houses to the north and the south of the courthouse, which is about a 7 foot difference from what we applied for originally."

That change, he said, would preserve most of the courthouse parking.

Another concern from the zoning board was that the county supervisors were looking to construct a new building when several in Le Mars are currently unused and vacant.

One person suggested using empty buildings on the former Westmar College campus in southern Le Mars, a supervisor reported.

"The remodeling cost on them was going to be way more than building a building," Anderson said. "We'd like to maintain the proximity to the courthouse for all offices if we can."

Kass agreed.

"We've looked at all these other possibilities," he said. "Now we're at a point where we can do something in a cost-effective manner that we don't have to raise anybody's taxes, and we can make the grounds look better after we're done than they do now by eliminating that (storage) shed, if possible."

Kass pointed out the courthouse is a functioning memorial.

In other words, it must serve both as a marker of history and a working office and court building, he said.

Supervisor C. Gordon Greene suggested posting in public places architects drawings depicting the proposed building.

The annex building is a work in progress, Kass said.

"At some point we could give the public some choices as to what the facade would look like or what the siding would look like," he added.

Several of the supervisors plan to attend Thursday's zoning meeting.