On Tuesday night, the Crookston Planning Commission gathered at City Hall to discuss a rezoning and variance request from local business Chico’s Transport. The owners of the business, Rosa, Lauro, and Robert Gutierrez, are located at 442 Marin Avenue in Crookston. They needed to add an additional commercial building due to their lack of adequate storage space for large trucks and oil changes during the cold winter months.

Currently, Chico’s Transport performs light maintenance work such as changing oil in a suboptimal area in the front of their lot. The business proposed to be rezoned from an I-2 to an R-2 zone, which is a residential family housing zone. This change was previously approved by the previous owner to accommodate a neighbor who needed the property for a residential house sale. The rezoning and variance requests were unanimously recommended by the Planning Commission as it was deemed beneficial for both the city and the business.

The recommendation will be presented to the Crookston City Council at their next meeting on Monday, April 22, in the City Hall council chambers. If approved by the council, this decision will allow Chico’s Transport to expand their operations while also benefiting the city with an expanded tax base and removing a residence that may have needed to be demolished.