Pictured is Lafayette Street resident Rhonda Swanson as she discusses her concerns with the potential zoning code change in the area of Jackson-Taylor Park. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

While the city Department of Development continues to look into a potential zoning code change for the area around Jackson-Taylor Park, one resident on Lafayette Street which sits next to the park and would be included in the change as it sits right now, expressed concerns about changing a residential neighborhood into a commercial one.

During Monday’s meeting of the housing committee, Rhonda Swanson said she lives to the south of Jackson-Taylor Park in the area being considered, adding that she was a little “wound up” when she first heard about the potential zoning change.

“I’m concerned for my neighbors who will be having their lives very much up-ended if their neighborhood can support businesses instead of just the residential housing that it’s been for over 100 years,” Swanson said. “I think it’s really unfair to do to people who are doing their best on that 800 block of Lafayette, 800 block of Jefferson, 2,3 and 400 block of West Eighth and part of Washington Street, that same area that backs up Lafayette.”

Swanson said as that area is a residential area people came and bought a home there with the intent to live in a residential neighborhood near a park, expressing that she believed it should be preserved as such. Additionally, she said adding in businesses will be “extremely disruptive” to the neighborhood, adding in more traffic and people that the residents there do not know coming around at all times of the day, along with more pollution with delivery trucks.

Swanson said she knows nothing has officially changed yet, but it could, and she questioned how allowing businesses to come into the area would benefit people, especially as empty commercial spaces exist all around the city in already commercial zones.

“I wouldn’t have bought where I did if I knew what was coming,” Swanson said. “The scrap yard was hard enough to deal with and it remains very difficult. We’ve already paid a very steep price for a decision like that and I don’t think we need another one that turns the neighborhood upside down.”

Deputy Director of Development Kacie Foulk said that this zoning change is currently still being worked on. As an R-2 district she said she did not know how the scrap yard ended up there, but noted that as a C-1, businesses able to be built there would not be large commercial businesses like another scrap yard, but more like office spaces. She said protecting the area around Lafayette Street as a residential zone is something that can be considered as they move forward with the process and they can take that to the consultants as feedback.

Foulk also noted that many businesses already exist in the area that the DOD is looking to change the zoning code for, and that most are empty storefronts or warehouses.

“This area in particular has one or two homes that are not well maintained as it is and there’s already operating businesses,” Foulk said.

A map included in the council agenda marked out businesses already operating in the area. The housing committee also discussed the ability to move the line away from Lafayette and Jefferson Street and other residential areas in the west, up to somewhere like Clinton Street where there are little to no residents. Foulk said the change is mostly for the businesses that are already there that are sitting empty, as they cannot be used for their current purpose without approval from the zoning board of appeals, but the border can be adjusted.

“We can adjust it to keep some streets out of there to keep them as residential,” Foulk said.