A distillery was was to be on the horizon for Mexico after a public hearing Monday to rezone a portion of a property in the Huntingfield Drive and Lowe Road area.

The person planning to construct the distillery and a single-family home opted to not purchase the property from Geeding Properties LLC and NGBS LLC.

Despite this, Geeding Properties requested the proposed rezoning move forward. The property is in the 1800 block of Huntingfield Drive and Lowe Road. The proposed rezoning is from heavy industrial to light industrial.

“[This is] behind what most local people would refer to as the doctor’s park,” City Manager Bruce Slagle said.

I-2, heavy industrial districts, are more restrictive in what type of operation is allowed on the property.

“This aspect is unique among city regulations,” Mexico Community Development Director Rita Jackson said.

The rezoning to I-1, light industrial, would have allowed the construction of the distillery and family home.

The proposed rezoning area already is a business campus, which makes it flexible to allow for business retention, expansion and recruitment, Jackson said. This includes light industrial and commercial.

Requests for comment were sent to six property owners within a 300-foot radius of the proposed rezoning. The city received one phone call seeking more information on distillery dimensions. The planning and zoning commission voted Aug. 4 to recommend the rezoning to the council, Jackson said.

“What I would like to do with this property is sell off 10-acre tracts,” property owner Nathan Geeding said. “That is my new plan as of this morning, for housing.”

Geeding would like to see a larger area for rezoning, if possible, he said.

“If you want a bigger area, you would have to go back to planning and zoning and ask for the larger area,” Slagle said. “If your uses have changed, even though we are taking it from an I-2 to an I-1, which allows you to do what you are doing, you may even want to take a look at further rezoning based on your uses.”

The property is part of a portion of the former A.P. Green brick refractory, but does not include the refractory.

Based on zoning rules, Geeding could construct homes on the property if it was rezoned to I-1.

The proposed rezoning was passed.

TAX LEVY SET

City staff received information from the Missouri State Auditor’s office to be able to set its tax levy for the 2020-21 fiscal year, starting Oct. 1.

The information allows the city to remain revenue neutral, Slagle said.

Assessed property values decreased around $3 million from 2019 to 2020.

“The state auditor’s office calculated the rate to be $0.7422 per $100 of valuation,” Slagle said.

The 2019-20 tax rate was $0.7272 per $100, so this is a slight increase in the levy.

Revenue from that rate will provide the city slightly more than $1.1 million to be distributed among the city’s general fund, parks and recreation fund and public health fund. A majority goes to the general fund.

The proposed tax levy was approved by the council.

GOLF CARTS ON STREETS

Council member Chris Miller, who founded M&M Golf Cars, asked for a discussion June 22 on a possible ordinance to allow golf cart and low-speed vehicle usage on city streets. That discussion continued Monday.

Miller recused himself from the follow-up discussion.

“After I brought this up, there was a lot of talk about that I was the only one that benefited from this,” Miller said before his recusal. “There was no thought that the city might make a little license money, might get sales tax. There was no thought that there is another golf cart dealer south of town. Sydenstrickers would benefit, Orscheln would benefit, Wiebergs would benefit and so would I. But I am going to bow out.”

Municipalities can set their own ordinances for golf cart usage on streets, according to state law.

Golf carts are regulated as vehicles that travel less than 20 mph. If they go faster than that speed, they are low-speed vehicles and must be registered like a regular motor-vehicle.

The council in June tabled the discussion until it could learn more about the regulations and get community feedback.

Council member Steve Haag is not opposed to allowing golf carts on city streets, but there needs to be a discussion on what an ordinance would say, he said.

Centralia has a golf-cart ordinance and Haag said he saw only one when conducting some observational research.

“It was dusk and one of their tail lights was out, so you kind of need to think about those things,” he said.

A majority of golf carts are seen during community-wide events in Centralia, such as Anchorfest, he said.

“I don’t know if I’m prepared to say let’s push forward and pass something right now, but I’m not opposed to having a deeper discussion and going from there,” Haag said.

Council member Vicki Briggs differed with Haag, saying she is not comfortable with allowing golf carts on streets. She noted concerns from Mexico Public Safety.

“We have a golf cart and I posed this question to people I play with and a lot of them don’t think it is safe,” Briggs said. “We have to keep in mind not everyone is going to comply with something the way you might like them. We just need one accident where someone gets hit or somebody flips one over and then we are not going to be happy, perhaps, with what we did.”

If we allow golf carts, the city also needs to look at low-speed vehicles, such as gators, council member Chris Williams said. The Audrain County Sheriff’s department uses their gators in all Audrain County communities, except Mexico, he said, noting they have additional safety equipment, such as seat belts.

“We have an owner of a golf cart business on the council, and if we do just golf carts, that has a horrible look to it,” Williams said.

Williams could not say whether or not he would support a golf cart/LSV ordinance due to unknown factors.

“I don’t know where the big benefit is to the community,” he said.

Public concerns also are focused on Mexico road widths, Mayor Ayanna Shivers said.

“I look at where I live and you can barely get one car down it sometimes at night because people park on the streets,” she said.

There needs to be more of a community push for allowing golf-carts, Shivers said. Haag agreed.

“I didn’t think it was appropriate to leave it where it was at [in June] without some direction from the council,“ Slagle said.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

The city has received a $30,000 grant through the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for use at the Mexico Memorial Airport. The grant was made possible by Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES Act, funding. The grant will be used as the local match for a runway lighting project.

The city extended a sublease with Home Depot U.S.A Inc. for an additional seven years. Home Depot leases a city spec building on Christopher Drive. The lease was to expire Sept. 30. The extension will include a monthly payment to the city of $13,260 through Oct. 1, 2022, where it then will increase to $14,000 per month for the remainder of the lease. The building operates as a Home Depot distribution facility.