The Knox City Council had final action on the outdoor storage ordinance last night.
The Knox plan commission members met on June 3 and discussed the city council’s recommendation on adding wording to allow a business to go before the board of zoning appeals and request a special use variance for outdoor displays. The council members felt that the ordinance was a blanket ordinance and businesses are different in how they operate so that could be an option for those businesses.
The ordinance outlines a requires setback of 25 feet.
With that, the Knox plan commission included wording of “any outdoor sales and displays prohibited by these regulations may be allowed by special use variance issued by the city of Knox board of zoning appeals”.
The council members all agreed that they were not targeting any business with this ordinance but that wasn’t the opinion of the owner of Smith Farm Store who said it was a blatant aim at his facility.
After two years of discussion and work on the ordinance, the council members unanimously accepted the outdoor storage ordinance as amended by the plan commission members for final action.
