MECHANICSBURG – The Mechanicsburg village council heard the first reading of an ordinance which would make changes to the zoning map at their regular meeting on Monday. The zoning changes will be the subject of a public hearing at 4 p.m. on April 18 at the fire station.

According to council member Charles Hickey, the ordinance will change the business zoning on South Main Street to residential, the manufacturing zoning on the north side of Oak Street to residential, and the manufacturing zoning of the Valero lot to business to conform to the current uses of those properties. Hickey noted that the lots currently zoned for manufacturing were to small too be legally used as manufacturing should a developer decide to do so.

“The zoning ordinance went through back in the late ’60s,” said Mayor Greg Kimball. “The feeling of the zoning people then was that any business expansion in town would be southward on Route 29. So they made that area down there business, with the contingency that people living there could live there, so that if a house burnt down or anything those people could rebuild their property as either residential or business.”

Hickey also discussed a residence next to the Post Office owned by John Ayars, formerly owned by Matthew Smith and used as both a residence and a business, and council determined not to change the zoning for that property.

Also at this meeting, council unanimously passed a motion to pay Flowline about $11,160 for regular maintenance at the sewer plant. Village Administrator April Huggins-Davis said it would take two trucks about 12 hours to clean out the tanks, and an additional 30 hours to clear the catch basins.