Arnold Council has delayed voting on a roofing company’s request to lease city-owned land for outdoor storage.
Liberty Roofing Center wants to lease the vacant lots at 1501-1507 Fourth Ave. As proposed, the rent would be $400 per month, or $4,800 per year, with a five-year minimum.
What would be stored there is unclear.
The lots are at the corner of Fourth Avenue and 15th Street and across Cherry Alley behind Liberty Roofing, which is at 1500 Third Ave.
At its meeting Tuesday, council voted to postpone approving a lease.
While Rick Rayburg, Arnold’s community development director, asked council to give tentative approval, Mayor Joe Bia said there was no lease in writing to review, and no one from the company was present to answer questions. The city’s solicitor, Jaclyn Shaw, was not present to offer advice.
“What can we vote on?” Bia said.
Councilwoman Deborah Vernon said she wants to know more about what Liberty Roofing would store on the land.
Rayburg said it’s zoned for that use.
In a letter to mayor and council, Liberty Roofing’s general manager, Norm Cook, said the company would clean the lots and put up a fence.
“We are strapped for square footage in our current location and trying to improve that situation without having to relocate,” Cook wrote.
Although the city is willing to sell the property, Rayburg said the company does not want to buy it.
In the letter, Cook said the company has not ruled out buying the land, but it is concerned about hazardous waste that might be below the surface and would not want to be held liable for any existing conditions.
A car repair shop had previously been at the location. The city bought the property and tore down the building, Rayburg said.
In his letter to the city, Cook said their lease of the land “would generate positive revenue and be more aesthetically pleasing to the community.”
