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Hearings needed to look at all of the building ordinances

The Marshall City Council will be holding hearings at today’s meeting to examine proposed amendments to the city’s building ordinances. The amendments are intended to make slight changes to the part of ordinances dealing with appearance standards for buildings in Marshall.

The appearance standards include rules on how a building or exterior remodel should look, as well as what kinds of materials are allowed in certain zoning areas.

Like all laws that are passed by government agencies, these ordinances were put in place to have a positive effect on the community. However, sometimes business owners and citizens discover the changes become too burdensome. Sometimes ordinances need to be changed.

This might be the case now.

At least one business owner and two city councilman are wondering if changes are in order for regulations in Marshall.

“I think they should examine all the rules and regulations, to see if they make sense,” Al Greig of Greig-Gregerson Management said.

Councilman James Lozinski and Steven Meister both said they have heard concerns from their constituents.

Greig is especially concerned with downtown appearance ordinances that include rules on acceptable paint colors and signage. He said some of these may not make sense for some business owners.

Marshall Public Works Director Glenn Olson said these ordinances were requested a few years ago by city administration and council members.

This time around, the city needs to hear from those business owners who are directly affected by these regulations. We agree with Greig that hearings should be held to examine all of these regulations. Perhaps, it might take multiple hearings on more than one meeting to get a handle of the situation.

And business owners need to attend these hearings.

“This is their chance to come out and tell the council what they think,” Olsen said. “We want to hear everyone’s opinion.”

We are glad to hear that.

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