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Collinsville City Council Amends Accessory Building Ordinance

By Stephanie Malench

smalench@timestribunenews.com

The Collinsville City Council voted to repeal and replace the section of the Code of ordinances pertaining to garages, carports, or storage buildings at its April 13 meeting at the Gateway Convention Center.

The new ordinance establishes new minimum design standards as well as clarifying existing minimum design standards, regulations, and restrictions for accessory structures.

The new ordinance increases opportunities for residents to enhance their single family  or one and two family residential lots.

One of the biggest changes in the new ordinance is that it allows any combination of two structures (garage, carport, or storage building), whereas before one of the buildings had to be a garage.

If a garage or carport is one of the structures, the driveway must meet code.

Design standards include moving the maximum size from a flat 1,000 square feet to a scaled maximum size based on lot size and the principle structure and a new maximum height for the accessory structures was brought down to 25 feet from 30 feet.

The front of the accessory building facing the street must have consistent building materials to match the main structure.

The council also approved rezoning of property at 19 ABC Parkway (Two Men and a Truck) from BP-3 Business Park District to P-BP-3 Planned Business Park District.

The business currently located at 116 N. Bluff Rd Suite A in Collinsville is moving their business to the new 1.6 acre, 14,900 square foot office warehouse space so that they can also  open on-site storage for customers that would be open during regular business hours.

The Key Performance Indicator discussion for the evening was held on the Police and Fire Departments. Both Police Chief Steve Evans and Fire Chief John Bailot stressed that their departments are difficult to establish performance indicators for because one does not want any emergencies to occur.

For the police department, Evans reported that although the average response time for a call is higher than the national standard of six minutes, the reporting system does not differentiate between an emergency and non-emergency calls.

Several important numbers from 2020 were shared. The total number of calls for service were 33,252, including 113 DUI arrests.

There were two murders in 2020. Both were drug related and not random, solved by the major case squad.

There were also two broad daylight shootings in 2020. The first was between rival gangs from Springfield that both happened to be at the Waffle House at the same time. The second a drug deal gone bad at the Dollar General Parking lot on St. Louis Rd.

Evans released the following goals for 2021: implement the use of body cameras, expand the license plate recognition camera program, continue programs cancelled due to COVID (including Youth Academy, Citizen’s Academy, and trainings), resume crime free housing classes for landlords when restrictions on gatherings are lifted, establish targets for the crime free program, and hire a 9th dispatcher.

The fire department had the following numbers for 2020. There were 3706 calls for service in 2020, 3467 in the city limits and 239 in the fire protection district.

Of those calls, 111 were fires(2.9%) and included grass fires, car fires, smoldering mulch,  and 21 structure fires (18.9%).

EMS called numbered 2,799, of which 35 were cardiac arrest. Bailot would like to see future performance indicators  reflect how many of those 35 cardiac arrest calls ended in lives saved.

Due to COVID, the were not prevention presentations or community events, but the department still provided 3,012 training hours to its staff and installed 10 smoke detectors.

During comments from the mayor, Mayor John Miller commended the groups that have been picking up trash around the city.

An ordinance was passed authorizing the city to purchase street maintenance materials from the lowest bidders for the 2021 Motor Fuel Tax Maintenance Program.

The low bidders were Beelman for seal coating and deicer, Metal Culverts for corrugated metal pipes, Midwest Municipal for HDPE pipes and pipe fittings, and Graybar for decorative street lights.

A bid was awarded to Plocher Construction Company for $6,0008,700 for construction of the bio-solids handling system upgrade at the wastewater treatment plant.

Plocher was the lowest of six bidders and was the only one to address an alternate bid for mill and overlay ion the roads in the plant for $118,000.

The improvements will convert the current handling of liquid Class II biosolids to a safer, dry Class I biosolid, reducing regulatory requirements and energy costs.

An ordinance approving the expenditure of Northeast Business District Funds totalling $36,693.57 to Lowell’s Service Center as a reimbursement for fuel equipment upgrades, roof replacement, awning, and asphalt/pavement repairs.

The council also approved a contract with Cool City lights for $105,456 to install new LED lights at the Collinsville Sports Complex.

The Ameren Energy Efficiency Program will pay $23,760 for the light heads that can be placed on new polls as the sports complex grows. This leaves the City only having to pay $81,696.

The final ordinance of the evening authorizes the City of Collinsville to apply for a state and local liquor license. The license will allow the City to serve alcohol at the Gateway Center where Spectra Food Services has ceased operations, as well as at Willloughby Farms, the Sports Complex, and the Activity Center for special events.

1 Comment

  1. Anonymous on April 29, 2021 at 12:26 am

    Good report.

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