The Keokuk City Council held the first reading to rezone property at 4045 Main St. The reading passed, but a motion to waive the second and third readings failed.

The property is owned by Rairden’s Towing & Transport, LLC. It was found several months ago that the land was not zoned correctly for its current use by the company.

The city received at least one complaint that the site was being used for auto salvage operations. Owner Paul Rairden told the Keokuk City Council at a public hearing on Feb. 5 that it is a storage facility and not being used for auto salvage, as is done in the area operated by Rairden off of South Seventh Street.

Currently, the property is zoned C-2, general commercial, with some of it zoned R-1 which is for a single family dwelling.

In a letter to the city, Rairden said throughout the whole purchasing process almost a decade ago, it was always said the property was zoned commercial.

The zoning change for the property would make it M-2, heavy industrial district.

Rairden would only be able to use the property as a storage facility, with no scrapping operations or auto salvage going on at the property. The city also would be instructing him to put up an 8-foot fence to block the area from view of the vehicles being stored there.

On Thursday, City Council Member Kathie Mahoney asked if the fence would block the view from the little league park, which is near this address, as there are a lot of visitors from out of town that go to games at the park, and it would leave a better impression if the vehicles were out of sight.

Rairden said it should block the vehicles, but he will have some of his equipment parked there, which may be visible.

The city had apparently told Rairden he would have to remove the vehicles from the property, as a letter to the city on Nov. 3 said he was respectfully requesting an appeal to remove the vehicles.

There are many vehicles on the property that are there because of an agreement with the city. The company tows impounds for the city and stores them at this lot. Rairden said in the November letter that the majority of the vehicles located on the property have been placed there at the request of law enforcement.

He said some have come in for an accident, on lack of insurance, registration violation or sometimes all three.

At the Feb. 5 public hearing, he said there is a process by which the company can get ownership of some of the vehicles, which then can be taken to be recycled, but it is a long process.

At the Thursday meeting, he said he has two buildings on the property full of vehicles.

A couple of residents who live in the area spoke at the Feb. 5 hearing, or sent in a letter to the city.

Jim Wolf did both. His letter said since 2017, when the property was transferred to the Rairden’s company, it has “Had an increasing amount of junk as defined by Iowa chapter 3061.”

Wolf sent along 11 photos of the property and asked the council to consider the value of the homes and property around the area and also the view from McCredie Park, which Mahoney mentioned on Thursday.

Also mentioned on Thursday was the storage of several large metal trash containers on the property. Rairden is letting a local garbage hauler store the bins there. Some of the bins had been sitting on a public street, so Rairden said the owner asked if he could bring them there.

There’s concern that the individual is scrapping metal at the location. Rairden was told that he would have to have those bins removed from the property.

The council passed the first reading for the zoning change. It was motioned and seconded to waive the second and third readings. Council Member Mike Greenwald asked if the city had to be hasty on the decision. Giving at least one more reading would only delay the rezoning by two weeks. If it goes to a third reading, it would be four weeks.

That would give residents a few more weeks to voice their concerns or support for the rezoning.

The waiving of the second and third readings was then voted down.