The Powell City Council recently rezoned a small portion of North Day Street to clear the way for some new housing.

R.R. Rentals plans to demolish an old house at 255 North Day Street and either renovate or demolish an aging apartment complex at 227 North Day Street before building some new housing. Work is set to get started around May, R.R. Rentals owner Ramon Rodriguez said in an interview last week.

His son, Robert Rodriguez, told the city council in December that the work on the property will “really just clean it up.” The current structures, he added, would “definitely look better just knocked down.”

The apartment complex was built around 1920, according to county records, and the house in 1933. Robert Rodriguez said both buildings have been vacant for years. 

The three lots that house the two structures sit across the alley from the vacant property that once held the Powell High School auditorium and the current 307 Health building.

Until recently, the Day Street properties had been zoned as Business General. That classification is meant to encourage commercial or public uses, such as retail businesses, small animal clinics or professional offices for the “maximum amount of service to the general public.” Standalone residences are prohibited in the district.

The century-old house and apartment complex on North Day Street were built before the city adopted zoning regulations and were therefore grandfathered in. However, any new construction or significant remodeling is subject to the rules — meaning the council needed to approve a switch to Residential General zoning to allow the redevelopment to move forward.

The council finalized the zoning change Jan. 3. Speaking at an initial December hearing on the proposal, Mayor John Wetzel said the request seemed to meet the city’s criteria.

“It’s not … out of the ordinary for any other changes we’ve made,” Wetzel said.

Councilors indicated they were pleased to hear about the new development, with Councilman Tim Sapp remarking that it’d be nice if some adjoining, separately owned lots were included in the project.

Robert and Ramon Rodriguez said they’re still deciding exactly what to build. Once the old house has been leveled, Ramon Rodriguez said a duplex could take its place. He’d been hoping to save and rebuild the apartment complex, but said Robert has mostly convinced him to knock it down and build new instead. A remodel would require meeting modern codes.

“Any significant work, or qualifying event, such as remodeling more than half of a building, the reconfiguration or extension of any system, or the installation of any additional equipment, any of which involves more than half of any existing building, requires International Building Code to be met,” City of Powell Building Official Ben Hubbard said in an email. “The big problem with remodeling those apartments would be meeting code, including a fire suppression system.”

In contrast, Hubbard said single-family homes and duplexes are exempt from the fire sprinkling requirement.

Ramon Rodriguez mentioned the possibility of splitting up the lots and building townhouses, but “I want to make sure everybody’s OK with it,” he added.

Whatever path R.R. Rentals takes on the project, Ramon said the goal is to end up with something that looks nice, noting the properties are located in the middle of Powell.

As summer arrives, “we’re going to do it,” he said.