The 304 West Washington ordinance was approved by the Urbana City Council at its Monday night meeting, despite three votes in opposition to the plan.

According to the memorandum, Jeff and Sandy Yockey made a request to the council to exceed the maximum square footage allowed for additional buildings on their property. 304 W. Washington is located on the north side of Washington Street between Birch and Cedar Streets. The current piece of property they are living on has an existing house of 765 square feet and a garage of 234 square feet. They would want to use the existing house they currently live in as a storage facility and build a larger house out front.

With a combined area of 999 square feet, the Yockeys are 249 square feet above the maximum amount of square footage, according to the Urbana Zoning Ordinace.

At the March 17 meeting, the Urbana Zoning Ordinance passed the request to the council with three votes in favor of the plan.

Jeff Yockey, property-owner and Urbana resident, said one option was to tear down everything on the property and build a garage to meet the needs of storage. He added that the couple is anticipating upcoming years where their belongings can be put in storage.

While a house will be built out front, the bathroom and kitchen in the former house, that will be turned into the storage facility, will need to be removed. According to Yockey, the next step is to submit the building plans.

The ordinance, on the other hand, was met with debate at the meeting.

Diane Marlin, Ward 7, said she did not support the proposed plan.

“I lived on that block for 27 years,” she said. “There’s a lot about that request that I find troubling. It sets the city up for policing the property. I just don’t think it makes good sense.”

Along with Marlin, Dennis Roberts, Ward 5, said he also had some doubts about the project.

“I also had some reservations about the density of the lot,” he said. “I’ve lived in communities that had front houses and back houses – they multiply. Two buildings on a single lot would be more detrimental. This zoning is not healthy.”

However, some council members were in favor of the request.

Heather Stevenson, Ward 6, said she is in support of this because of two reasons: the Yockeys still want to continue to live in Urbana and she is a property rights advocate.

Other council members said they thought a good middle ground was reached with the ordinance, yet the extra square footage still remains to be the lingering issue.

“As long as the new house is built to code, the only thing is the 250 (square) feet in excess,” said Charlie Smyth, Ward 1. “I think we found a very good compromise.”