By Janet Jacobs
Corsicana Daily Sun
Corsicana —
The Corsicana City Council approved Tuesday the rezoning of a block of land located just off First Avenue to allow for construction of a small shopping center.
The project is the brainchild of the three Rajani brothers of McKinney — Farhan, Saleem and Karim — who already own two convenience stores in Corsicana. One of their stores is the renovated shop at the corner of Beaton and First, on the same block as the proposed shopping center.
The project is for a shopping center with five to seven small boutique shops at the corner of Commerce and First Avenue. When it was first introduced at the Aug. 19 meeting, however, only Tom Wilson motioned to approve the rezoning. It failed for lack of a second.
This time, only Councilman George Walker voted against the measure, reiterating his concern that it would create traffic congestion problems on First Avenue. It passed on a vote of four to one.
The property owners appealed the issue to the mayor, and it was put back on the agenda.
Speaking out in support of the project were Vicky Prater and Stan Farmer, who said it would boost the local economy and be an asset to the city.
“If we want to keep our money in Corsicana we need to encourage these young men,” Prater told the council.
The lot will still need to have a new plat or official city map, but they want to start immediately, said Saleem Rajani.
“We just love Corsicana,” he said.
In other business, the council approved the tax rate, which isn’t changing from the previous year. The city’s tax rate currently is .6272 cents, or just under 63 cents for every $100 of appraised property value. Although the tax rate didn’t change, the city will collect more for that same tax rate because appraisals went up slightly from last year. The city will collect an estimated $150,000 more this year from property taxes.
In other business, the council took the following actions:
• Pushed back approval of the city budget until Sept. 21.
• Approved the tariff deal with Atmos, the result of a drawn-out negotiations process with numerous cities, not just Corsicana. The deal will mean an increase of about $1.40 per month for each Corsicana residence. Part of that will go into the rate change, and 15 cents of that will go to pay for new gas lines. The company has agreed to replace 1,700 service lines in the city originally installed between 1940 and 1970. The Texas Railroad Commission wants the company to do the work within two years, Atmos doesn’t. The company is still trying to negotiate the timing on that, said spokesman Kyle Slaughter.
• Approved a contract to install LED bulbs in the city’s downtown traffic signals. The project is being paid for with a federal stimulus grant and is designed to improve energy efficiency. Replacing the lenses could save the city $8,000 to $9,000 a year in energy costs, according to City Engineer Elizabeth Borstad.
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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com. Want to “sound off” to this article? E-mail: Soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com
