Smithville City Council Tables Vote on Main Street Fence

By Kristen Meriwether, Publisher

For most residents walking down Main Street in Smithville, the empty space between Tiger Gym and what used to be the Playhouse is just an alley. A place to stand during a parade. A way to walk to Olive Street. Somewhere for your dog to do its business.

But this small slice of dirt is becoming a focal point in a battle over property rights and past development deals.

For at least 50 years, Smithville has used the space as an alley. However, the city never designated it as such. And in September 2008, the city conveyed the lot to Sid Millspaugh in a 380 economic development agreement, according to a timeline provided by the city. The two lots were replatted in 2017 to make them one parcel.

As renovations began on 110 Main Street this year, Millspaugh performed a survey on his lot and appeared before the Historic Preservation and Design Standards Committee to request a fence be allowed across the alley on both sides.

“We've had an enormous amount of traffic lately. Over the years, it's just kept growing and growing and growing,” Millspaugh said during the Oct. 15 meeting. “We want to kind of try to get it so that there's more vegetation on it and it looks nicer from the streets than it does now, and make it look good, kind of like across the street [200 Main].”

The committee granted the request by a vote of 4-3, but the change required council approval to move forward.

At Monday’s council meeting, Rachael Tolbert, who owns and is renovating 110 Main Street, voiced her concerns about the proposed fence, which would block access to the back of her building.

“I'm asking the council to review his [Millspaugh’s] plans in a little more detail, see what he has. Right now it's just a fence barricade, but I just want to know a little bit more about those plans,” Tolbert said during public comments at Monday’s meeting. “There were big plans to develop that whole corner on Main, plans that never happened. And I think the city may have lacked a bit of foresight when they sold the alley to Mr. Millspaugh, particularly thinking about how it would affect neighboring businesses like mine.”

While awaiting approval of a permanent fence, Millspaugh has parked trucks on his property that block access for cars to go through. While it has kept people off his property, it has created issues for anyone trying to navigate the rear of the property.

Council member Brandon Dunham said Waste Management, the city’s garbage contractor, can no longer navigate the alley, and it was unclear if fire trucks would be able to either.

“It's a 90-degree turn to get out toward the back of the block, but there's no way to get out the front of the block, and because of the AT&T pole, there's no way for me to get into my building at all or even to use it for parking,” Tolbert said. “I'm kind of trapped in there with his proposal.”

The other issue is a 2-inch gas line buried beneath the empty parcel that goes across Main Street. Tolbert has been unable to connect gas to her building and is awaiting a resolution between Millspaugh and the gas utility.

“The gas line is not a trivial gas line…It's a very, very significant line that has been in place for roughly 100 years,” Dunham said. “It is not going to be an easy task and that property may never be developed if that gas line can't be removed.”

Millspaugh addressed the council, saying, “What I'm trying to accomplish is simply to just beautify that lot.”

If development is able to move forward on that parcel, Millspaugh said he has concerns about a new roof Tolbert just added to the adjacent property at 110 Main Street. He said the newly built A-frame roof, which was a replacement of what was on the building before, encroached on his land. He also expressed concerns about how rainwater would affect anything he built on the parcel.

“I think we've got too many moving parts here to make a decision on this tonight,” council member Mitch Jameson said. “I'm thinking that if we were to direct him [city manager] to prepare a report on possible solutions to this, because this is multifaceted, and possibly negotiate with Mr. Millspaugh whatever those solutions might be. But I certainly cannot approve this tonight.”

Meek agreed, saying she was not willing to approve the fence with all the unanswered questions.

Millspaugh explained the challenges he’s had getting the six parcels of land developed, including issues with a parking ordinance and his proposed building being too tall for fire trucks, which resulted in the city not greenlighting the project.

“Every time I come before the committees, there's always one reason or another why I don't get basically what I came before the committee for,” Millspaugh said at Monday’s meeting.

“Sid, I understand what you're trying to do, but until we get all the clarification we need, none of us are going to be willing to vote for this,” council member Jimmy Jenkins said.

The council voted 3-2 to table the decision to approve the fence, with Dunham and Jameson voting no. The council then unanimously voted to instruct interim city manager Jeremy Frazier to look into the issues discussed in the meeting, including improvements made at 110 Main Street, and bring back to the council proposed solutions.