By Janet Jacobs
Corsicana Daily Sun
Corsicana —
The Corsicana City Council will consider rezoning a block off First Avenue to allow for construction of a small shopping center, when the group meets in regular session at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Government Center, 200 N. 12th St.
The project is the brainchild of Saleem Rajani, who proposed a shopping center with 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.
Later, council members said they just didn’t know enough about it, or were concerned about traffic congestion in the area.
Rajani appealed the decision, or lack thereof, to the mayor, and it was put back on the agenda for the next meeting.
In other business, the council will be asked to approve 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.
The city was also set to approve the budget, but that has been pushed back until Sept. 21, according to the city council agenda.
Two other agenda items are approving the tariff deal with Atmos, the result of a drawn-out negotiations process with numerous cities, not just Corsicana; and approving a contract to install LED bulbs in the city’s traffic signals.
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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
