The old Carbondale fire station may have new owners as early as tonight.
The Carbondale City Council is having a public hearing on the sale of the property located at 300 South Oakland Ave.
The city recently received two proposals for the building
It’s been a few years since the fire department left their building on South Oakland Ave and relocated to Glenview.
Recently two proposals and offers came to the city for the building.
One is a farm to table restaurant and bar with future plans to operate a brewery, Joshua Klarer offered the city $82,000.
The second is a mixed use for artists’ workshops, event space and tasting room for local breweries.
The city is having a public hearing to sell for the mix use space proposed by John Deas and Alison Smith who offered $50,000.
The property sits across the street from the arbor district.
Arbor district treasurer Jane Adams is questioning why the city choose to sell it for a lesser amount.
“It really is mysterious how they leave $32,000 on the table.”
Margret Polovich has lived 2 houses down from the building for almost 30 years, and feels the city would benefit more from the first proposal.
“A restaurant would seem to me to generate additional sales tax revenues which are beneficial to everyone.”
Carbondale public relations officer Amy Fox explains the location had a lot to do with the decision the city made.
“We never intended for this area to be a restaurant or a gas station or a convenience store we were looking for something that wouldn’t draw as much traffic to that particular space cause were very limited on parking and then accessibility is also pretty difficult.”
The building is currently zoned for residential single family, so the city will have to rezone it but what type of zone hasn’t been determined.
Adams says this has some residents worried.
“It gives the neighborhood and neighbors no confidence that theirs going to be a use in here that is what it said it was going to be.”
Alison Smith and her husband John Deas are hoping the city decides to sell to them Tuesday night and are open to anyone having questions or concerns about their plans.
“We’re happy to talk with anybody that has questions, John and myself we’ve been posting things on our social media, we’ve talked with other news media and shared information and portions of our proposal.”
Fox says nothing is set in stone yet and Tuesday’s public hearing is the place for anyone to voice their concern over this issue.
“Those hearings are designed to both the positives and the negatives and depending on what the council decides we could possibly go relook at these proposals and we might not reach an agreement but obviously that hinges upon the councils decision and also the feedback we get from the community.”
The city council meeting starts at 7pm Tuesday night.
