Following Monday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting of the Columbia City Council, the city seems to be several steps closer to welcoming new and expanded businesses in 2016 and well into the future.

The council discussed entering into an agreement with the village of Dupo, working together to cooperate and coordinate efforts to plan, permit, market, support, incorporate revenue sharing if applicable, and help their shared area of the  American Bottom realize a business boon.

Although no longer on its list of current projects, Discovery Business Park, developed by Clayco, was to be located primarily in Dupo and contain a total of 22 million square feet of commercial, retail, office and light industrial space on nearly 2,000 acres, utilizing a new I-255 interchange at Davis Street Ferry, the Dupo railroad yard and the Mississippi River.

Columbia had its own proposed development, now defunct, called Columbia Crossing, that would have turned a portion of the bottom into a retail and light industrial behemoth that also included a new I-255 interchange at the Fish Lake overpass.

The two projects were in competition with each other over federal funding, which was eventually awarded to the Dupo project, but in the approximately 10 years since, an economic downturn and FEMA’s de-certification of the affected levee system have eliminated any traction on the project.
So, for the two communities to unite in their efforts to bring business development to the area is, both communities hope, fortuitous.

“It shows a great faith effort, not just to Dupo, but to our neighbors in other counties and really across the state,” said Columbia Director of Community and Economic Development Paul Ellis.
The city council will decide whether or not to formally enter into the agreement at the next city council meeting scheduled for Monday, March 7.

The council also discussed a variance request by Herbert “Junior” Frentzel, owner of No-Jack’s Bar & Grill in Smithton, related to building materials for a proposed restaurant to be built at 220 Admiral Trost Drive near the Hampton Inn.

“It’s a nice facade. It’s going to be very attractive,” Alderman Jim Agne said.

The architectural review board has already considered Frentzel’s request and all four members voted to recommend the city council approve it.

The front will be a combination of stone and glass.

“It’s a really nice building and I think you’d be very pleased with it,” Frentzel said.

Plans are also for Frentzel to build a medical building that will share a parking lot with this proposed new restaurant.

This latest host of business projects is in addition to the large-scale medical/professional park complex known as 11 South on the north end of town being developed by Joe Koppeis; and planned projects that include Main Street Abbey — which is the renovation and re-purposing of the decommissioned Immaculate Conception Church, convent, rectory and, eventually school — and a State Bank of Waterloo branch under consideration at the former Hardee’s site.

Also at Monday’s committee meeting, the council considered a special use permit from Deborah Killy, owner of Columbia Kinder College, to renovate the former Quiznos, located at 1550 North Main Street, into a satellite location of her daycare center, specifically for infants. The building is located in a neighborhood business district.

“It’s a perfect location,” Agne said.

“She’s following the state regulation, which is more strict than ours,” city building inspector Justin Osterhage added.

A public hearing on the matter will be heard by the zoning board of appeals on Feb. 24, at 7:30 p.m., at city hall. The city council will take official action on the request at their March 7 meeting.

Electronic message signs were also discussed by the council. Such signs are currently not permitted in Columbia’s sign code.

“I’m just concerned that these electronic message boards are going to give people a different view of our community,” Agne said, adding that he doesn’t want to see “aggressive advertising” on Columbia’s Main Street.

The signs will be discussed in more detail at subsequent meetings.