City Council approves conditional use permit for daycare, school building

The Tea City Council held their first meeting of the month July 1, where they approved the conditional use permit (CUP) for an in-home daycare.

With no one to speak for or against the CUP either before the meeting or at the meeting, the council moved to approve the permit for an in-home daycare for Abby Ahrendt at 900 E. 1st Street.

In zoning, planning and zoning administrator Kevin Nissen presented information about the Ma & Pa Addition at Elsie and Maple from Herman Otten. Otten was present to discuss the numbers he had come up with for a cost estimate for improvement to Maple Street.

The cost of 24-foot wide asphalt road without curb and gutter to 468th Avenue was $19,496.25. Otten’s lots with utilities was $59,409.25. The property on the north half of Maple was estimated at $21,785.75 and the property on the south half of Maple was estimated at $18,673.25.

Otten said it is just a cost estimate from his engineer. He intends to keep his housing eligibility on the one acre in that area for himself, but does not intend to do anything with that property in the immediate future.

He is looking for the city and the current property owners to decide who pays for the street. Mayor John Lawler said they would get a meeting with the property owners to discuss the issue.

Nissen also presented the building and site plans for the Tea Area School District for the building of a transportation and CTE facility at the high school site. The building is a 32,000 square foot bus barn and industrial arts teaching space.

The council expressed concerns of drainage from the new building. Wayne Larsen, operations manager for the school district, said that water will continue to drain to the west like it does now.

Ben Scholtz, with HDR, said Stockwell submitted a technical memo on drainage to the city. Scholtz noted he has concerns about drainage with the district’s future plans to expand at the high school.

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