While it won't have any bearing on the Gilliland cabins, the Municipal Planning Commission voted Wednesday to amend and pass a bill that could extend the stay of demolition of historic structures.
Councilman Tom Lane introduced the bill, which initially proposed increasing the stay of demolition from 90 days to 180 days.
Lane said the recent turmoil surrounding the possible destruction of the Gilliland cabins, as well as the past demolition of Central Methodist Church on the West Side, motivated him to introduce the bill.
The Historic Landmarks Commission granted a 90-day demolition stay of the cabins in November, which has since expired.
The commission ultimately voted to amend the bill so that a status hearing may be held by the Historic Landmarks Commission at the end of a 90-day demolition stay. If it finds that sufficient efforts have been made to find alternative solutions for the building in question, it may implement one additional 90-day stay for a total of 180 days.
That change was advocated by commissioner J.D. Stricklen, who bought the four-acre property on which Gilliland cabins sit in February. Stricklen is the planning commission's Kanawha County representative and is a nonvoting member, but offered his opinions on the bill Lane introduced.
"If you're trying to put a deal together, when you go to 180 days, it will kill a lot of prospective deals because that's a pretty long period of time," Stricklen said.
But to some planning commission members, the empty meeting room on Wednesday spoke louder than the proposed bill. No one attended the meeting in support or opposition of the measure.
"I think this is ludicrous," said commissioner Chad Robinson, who noted that the existing language on historic building demolition, adopted 18 months ago, shouldn't be changed solely because of the Gilliland cabin controversy.
"If it's that big of a deal, you'd think people would be here to speak in favor of it," Robinson said.
Lane said he was not aware of the planning commission's meeting Wednesday and was caught "completely by surprise."
Planning commissioners Shawn Taylor, Teresa Moore and Chad Robinson voted in opposition to the amended bill, while Mary Jean Davis, Adam Krason, Jesse Forbes, Steve Blackwell, Margo Teeter, Rod Blackstone and Braxton Brady voted in favor.
Also on Wednesday, planning commission voted to approve a bill on behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston to amend the city's zoning ordinance to rezone Charleston Catholic High School, at 1033 Virginia St. East, from a residential office district to a central business district.
The school plans to add a 10,000-square-foot addition in the future, and sought the zoning change in order to complete future construction without first needing a conditional use permit.
Attorney Nick Casey, who represents the church, said he also plans to submit a petition to ask that Sacred Heart Cathedral and grade school also be rezoned to the central business district.
The commission also approved a text amendment to the zoning ordinance that would allow bed and breakfast inns as a conditional use permit in an R-4 single family residential district. The Board of Zoning Appeals would still need to approve those permits on a case by case basis, City Planning Director Dan Vriendt said.
All three bills now must go before City Council's committee on planning before council will vote on them.
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.