Council wants more info before agreeing to storage facility

The Du Quoin City Council has hit the pause button on a proposal for a storage facility at the west end of he Route 51 overpass.

The city's zoning board has recommended the project go ahead, but at Monday's city council meeting commissioners and Mayor Guy Alongi hesitated, not sure that the business belongs in a residential area.

"It mildly concerns me how it would look," Alongi said. "I'm not saying I'm against it but I want to study it more."

Jake Parnell, the prospective buyer of the site at South Hickory and East Poplar, is making the proposal for storage facilities. He will be invited to the next city council meeting on Sept. 14, to "show us what it will look like," Alongi said.

Parnell could not be reached to discuss the project.

To put a storage facility there, the zoning of the property would have to be changed from residential to business. The zoning board is recommending the change.

Alongi said the property is in a high traffic area. He said if any business goes in there, be it retail or storage, the city needs to make sure the entrances and exits won't create a hazardous traffic situation.

His other concern is aesthetics, Alongi said. "How will that look in a residential area, and on one of the main thoroughfares through town?"