New villagers Jessica Yamamoto and Antonio Molina, pictured with their nine-year-old twin daughters, Sophia and Jessie, are the new owners of Millworks Business Center. The couple buys and rehabs properties that they resell or maintain as rentals. (Photo by Carol Simmons)
MillWorks owners look to address concerns
- Published: February 16, 2019
The new owners of MillWorks business park, who are requesting a zoning change on the property to allow for more uses, were at the Emporium on Sunday, Feb. 17, to field questions and address citizen concerns about the project.
Those concerns came to a head this week at Planning Commission’s regular meeting, Tuesday, Feb. 12, when several villagers and immediate neighbors raised concerns about insufficient parking, an increase in traffic, water runoff challenges, problems with visitors and, under the new plan, the potential loss of two longtime tenants of the park — EnviroFlight and S&G Artisan Distillery, among other issues.
Jessica Yamamoto and Antonio Molina purchased the four-acre property on N. Walnut Street last fall for $1.15 million and want to transition it from an I-1 industrial zone to a Planned Unit Development, or PUD, that would allow a mix of industrial uses with those permitted in the B-1, or central business district zoning, such as residential and more retail.
The owners’ conceptual plan includes artist lofts, art studios, maker spaces, community kitchens, a hostel, a children’s museum and more, and features renovations to the existing 48,000-square foot facility and new construction. Before the meeting, the owners withdrew their proposal for a flex space that was to be used for theater productions, trade shows, performances, demonstrations.
In the end, Planning Commission did not approve the PUD preliminary plan request because it failed to garner the necessary three votes on one of the required qualifications. Village Council will now consider the rezoning, taking into account Planning Commission’s stated concerns and requests for various studies, including those addressing traffic and pedestrian safety, noise and storm water.
The Planning Commission consists of chair Frank Doden, Council liaison Marianne MacQueen, AJ Williams, Dino Pallotta and Ted Donnell. Donnell recused himself from the discussion and voting because he is the architect on the MillWorks project.
A full article on the Planning Commission meeting will be in the Feb. 21 issue of the News.
See “MillWorks seeks zoning change — A new vision for an old park” from the Feb. 7 issue of the News and, previously, “MillWorks changes hands” and, from 2015, “Beer, bugs get bigger at MillWorks” and, from 2012, “MillWorks a home to business.”
A full plan is available at Planning Commission’s agenda.
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Thanks, Kate, for letting us know! Error is fixed.
“Donnell recused himself from the discussion and voting because if the architect ”
This sentence makes no sense. Please proofread more carefully.