Church zonings, red light camera on tap in Jefferson

Two church rezonings and approval of moving forward with placing cameras at some red lights in the city will be voted on when the Jefferson City Council meets at 6 p.m. Monday at the civic center.

One rezoning request is from Jefferson First United Methodist Church to rezone 1.83 acres on Cooley Street and Storey Street from R-2 (residential) to O-I (office-institutional) to locate a parking lot. At an earlier meeting, members of the church spoke in favor of the request, while some area property owners spoke out against the proposal.

The other zoning request comes from Harvest Chapel Ministries to rezone 1.1 acres at 2106 Old Pendergrass Road from O-I (office-institutional district) to C-2 (commercial district) in order to sell the property for a Dollar General store. Steve Hutto, pastor of Harvest Chapel Ministries (now known as Sanctuary church), said at the earlier meeting that the church members want to sell the property in order to pay off debt and be “mortgage free.” Several neighboring property owners spoke against the change.

The Jefferson City Council will also decide whether or not to approve a proposal from police chief Joe Wirthman to locate cameras at traffic lights on Hwy. 129 at I-85. The cameras would not be placed at the traffic light in downtown Jefferson.