Planning commission recommends zoning change for 10-unit container-style transitional housing at 2101 S. Eighth St.
July 27, 2023 | St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri
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The St. Joseph Planning Commission on Thursday recommended that City Council approve a zoning change requested by Community Action Partnership of Greater Saint Joseph to convert a vacant M2‑zoned parcel at 2101 South Eighth Street into a planned unit development for up to 10 container-style transitional homes.
Whitney Lanning, executive director of Community Action Partnership (CAP), told the commission the project grew from an August 2021 ARPA application; CAP received $800,000 toward housing initiatives and revised the project to ten transitional units after a local housing blueprint identified a need for smaller, transitional units. “We think this is a pretty reasonable amount,” Lanning said when asked about resident cost, adding the monthly resident charge will be about $350 to $400 with utilities included.
Lanning said the units will be leased month-to-month to adults working with case managers, with a goal of moving residents into permanent housing in under a year. She described program safeguards: on-site supervision by case managers, written rental terms that prohibit barbecues and loitering, maintenance handled by CAP, and explicit limits on unit count — any expansion would require a zoning change and new site plan. CAP also reported it completed an environmental phase 1 review for the portion of the property it owns and said that review “came back with no concerns for this use.”
Nearby property owners voiced strong opposition. One longtime owner, identified in the hearing as Deshaun, raised concerns about soil contamination from decades of salvage-yard use on parts of the larger parcel and warned the proposed homes would bring theft and nuisance behavior. John Brown and others described persistent problems they attribute to local unsheltered residents and said they worry supervised housing will not resolve those issues.
Commissioners debated the balance between neighborhood impacts and the city’s obligation to address homelessness. One commissioner said the block is already mixed-use, with many legal nonconforming residences adjacent to M2 zoning, and called the CAP proposal a practical, supervised approach. Another commissioner emphasized the difference between unsupervised encampments and a supervised transitional program. After discussion, the commission voted to forward the zoning change to City Council with a recommendation of approval.
City Council will receive the Planning Commission’s recommendation and will schedule a public hearing and final vote. The Planning Commission’s action does not itself change zoning.
Whitney Lanning, executive director of Community Action Partnership (CAP), told the commission the project grew from an August 2021 ARPA application; CAP received $800,000 toward housing initiatives and revised the project to ten transitional units after a local housing blueprint identified a need for smaller, transitional units. “We think this is a pretty reasonable amount,” Lanning said when asked about resident cost, adding the monthly resident charge will be about $350 to $400 with utilities included.
Lanning said the units will be leased month-to-month to adults working with case managers, with a goal of moving residents into permanent housing in under a year. She described program safeguards: on-site supervision by case managers, written rental terms that prohibit barbecues and loitering, maintenance handled by CAP, and explicit limits on unit count — any expansion would require a zoning change and new site plan. CAP also reported it completed an environmental phase 1 review for the portion of the property it owns and said that review “came back with no concerns for this use.”
Nearby property owners voiced strong opposition. One longtime owner, identified in the hearing as Deshaun, raised concerns about soil contamination from decades of salvage-yard use on parts of the larger parcel and warned the proposed homes would bring theft and nuisance behavior. John Brown and others described persistent problems they attribute to local unsheltered residents and said they worry supervised housing will not resolve those issues.
Commissioners debated the balance between neighborhood impacts and the city’s obligation to address homelessness. One commissioner said the block is already mixed-use, with many legal nonconforming residences adjacent to M2 zoning, and called the CAP proposal a practical, supervised approach. Another commissioner emphasized the difference between unsupervised encampments and a supervised transitional program. After discussion, the commission voted to forward the zoning change to City Council with a recommendation of approval.
City Council will receive the Planning Commission’s recommendation and will schedule a public hearing and final vote. The Planning Commission’s action does not itself change zoning.
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