St. Cloud Council To City Consider Rezoning Request on Former Garfield School

ST. CLOUD - The St. Cloud city council will once again be asked to rezone the former Garfield Elementary School.

During tonight's (Monday) meeting, the council will hold a public hearing on a request to rezone the property at the corner of 17th Avenue and 7th Street South to a Planned Unit Development.

The old elementary school has most recently been used by the Good News Assembly of God Church.

Cohen Esrey Affordable Partners is requesting the zoning change to turn the building into a 29-unit senior housing complex, including remodeling the existing building into 17 units, and building three four-unit buildings on the existing parking lot.  All of the units would be for people 55-years-old and older.

Lead Pastor at Good News Assembly of God Church Randy Adams says, if the rezoning is allowed to go through, and they are able to sell their building, the church would look for land and are hoping to build a new church.  He says the sale probably wouldn't go through at least until August.

Last May the council ruled against the rezoning request because the plan at that time lacked specific details.  Neighborhood residents at that time opposed the plan.