MECHANICSBURG – Zoning Inspector Dusty Hurst discussed options for rezoning downtown Mechanicsburg at Monday’s village council meeting. He said that the current zoning map was drawn in 1968 and that the planning commission has been working to create an updated map to reflect zoning overlays that have been established in the last 50 years.

According to Hurst, South Main Street is zoned B-3 (business) up to Oak Street, after which it is zoned for manufacturing. Many of the residential properties on that street have been sold with specific loans to get that zoning, but the city’s map needs to be updated for those properties to be in compliance.

Hurst said that the planning commission came up with three basic recommendations that will require additional study and a public hearing to implement. One was adding conditional public and semi-public uses to the B-2 zoning regulations, which is currently the only type of zoning that does not allow for conditional uses by the city. The second recommendation was for the M-1 (manufacturing) zoning on the north side of Oak Street between South Main and Locust Street be changed to R-2 to comply with the rest of the residential zoning. A third recommendation was that the area south of Oak Street between South Main and Locust Street be changed from M-2 to B-2.

The third recommendation primarily concerns the former Valero lot adjacent to Heritage Cooperative, which is nonconforming to its current Heavy Manufacturing zoning because the lot is less than one acre. Although a realty agent’s sign is up on the lot there is no price established for it, and the zoning would have to be changed for it to be used at all.

Also at this meeting, Mayor Greg Kimball introduced new Water and Wastewater Superintendent Jim Bennett. Bennett most recently worked in Sidney, has 25 years of experience in water and sewer and is a Class 3 operator for both water and sewer.