KINGWOOD — Kingwood Council was pleased to see business license applications this week but wrestled with whether all the owners’ requests met code.
Council approved licenses for On the Go Restaurant at 328 Tunnelton St. and for Preston Chiropractic Health Clinic at 204 W. Main. It referred the owner of Almost Heaven Candles & More at 115 Miller Road to the Board of Zoning Appeals to seek a variance.
Ronald Weaver asked for a business license at 115 Miller Road. He noted that a former owner had a real estate business in the house, and it is just down the road from the Dairy Queen and a nursing home.
Mayor Jean Guillot said the real estate agency left because of zoning and the other businesses had a variance. Council said because it is zoned R1 residential, Weaver would have to seek a variance before the license could be issued.
“It’s got designated parking. We’re going to sell some candles and some woodworking and stuff,” he said. “It’s not like we’re going to have an increase in traffic.”
Council said the product could be made there but not sold without a variance. The ordinance has been in effect for many years and was last revised in 2013, Recorder Bill Robertson said.
“A little community like this, you think you would welcome start up businesses,” Weaver said. We do, the mayor said, but you need a variance in a residential area, and neighbors will have an opportunity to comment.
“One of the benefits, I think, of living in the city is … the zoning process,” Robertson said. “Therefore if you build a nice house you don’t have to worry about a business or something else right beside you because of zoning guidelines.”
“It just seems very select,” Weaver said.
Robertson said the current and prior councils have followed the ordinance. “That argument’s not going to fly with me.”
While council approved the business license for On the Go Restaurant, it debated whether proposed signage met code. Ultimately it decided the owner, Sho Neal, can put a sign across the front of the building and one on the sign post. A folding menu board in the parking lot doesn’t count as one of the two signs allowed by code because it will change daily.
Signs inside the windows are also fine, Council Member Mike Lipscomb said. But a question arose about feather banners, upright banners that stand outside. The current ordinance doesn’t address the banners, Guillot said, but the revised ordinance now being considered by council would allow them.
“There’s so many variances in this sign ordinance, and I’m hoping the new one will correct these,” Robertson said.
Signage in the form of a mural painted on the side of a building was also discussed. A beauty salon recently opened in the former Kingwood Floral location on Main Street and repainted over an existing mural.
Council unanimously approved the mural for business owners Carol Henline and Kathy Freeland.
In other action at Tuesday’s meeting, Jessica Lipscomb asked council to appoint people to fill vacancies on the Pool Committee, which it did. She said the committee’s goal, now that the roof has been removed from the pool and it has reopened, is to find funding for a splash pad. The pad would fill a need for young children, Lipscomb said.
She said a video was done at the pool to show prospective grantors. All funds raised will be funneled through Kingwood Parks and Recreation.
