Urbana City Council approved a proposed ALDI store in a 4-1 vote Monday night pending several conditions after listening to public concerns.

The Council approved an ordinance granting a special-use permit for a proposed ALDI store to be on the northwest corner of University Avenue and High Cross Road.

Planning manager Rob Kowalski said Aldi Inc. planned to purchase a 5.8-acre lot and separate it into two parcels. The 15,360 square-foot store would be located on the southern parcel of the lot, and currently there are no plans for the northern parcel of the lot.

“We don’t know now when what will be on the north part of that plot,” said Gary Durack, an Urbana resident.

Durack said he would be able to see the proposed store from the front of his house, and that the city should look at its current B-1 zoning.

Kowalski said the lot was located in a B-1 zoning district for neighborhood businesses, and therefore required a special-use permit. According to a city memorandum, the Plan Commission and city council grants the permit.

“It really is an unusual exception to our B-1 zoning parcels,” Kowalski said.

The Planning Commission recommended the approval of the special use permit pending several conditions. These include limiting store operation hours from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, having no delivery traffic between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. and constructing a wall beginning at the Beringer Commons subdivision with an ending at the northeast corner of the parcel.

Residents also disagreed with proposed revisions given by individual aldermen, including having an eight-foot break in the wall. The council decided not to include the break and agreed on specific decibel levels for the day and evening hours of operation.

In other news, the council unanimously approved rule changes to Urbana Public Television that would allow Democracy Now, an independent, syndicated news program, to begin airing Jan. 3.

The issue caused some tension within the city administration and among Urbana public access members. Randall Cotton, who first requested the show be aired, had accused Mayor Tod Satterthwaite of attempting to prevent the show from airing.

“I think (Cotton) has been a little impatient and he didn’t realize at the beginning the nature of his request hadn’t been foreseen at the time (the old rules were written),” Satterwaithe said before the meeting.

Alderwoman Danielle Chynoweth had expressed concerns about the length of time it took the rules to be approved.

“When you put a nine-month barrier up, what does that say to the community? I think it’s a disincentive to participation,” she said.

Also, a resolution that would certify consistency between Urbana and the Housing Authority of Champaign County was delayed until changes could be made regarding language about the program’s mission and the allocation of housing based on median family income.