Portales Council aims for more business friendly downtown

The Portales City Council on June 25 unanimously approved a zoning change it hopes will make the downtown area more business friendly.

At its regular meeting, the Council heard an explanation on a downtown ordinance first published about 15 years ago. That ordinance had multiple restrictions and rules for a section on Main Street, where the Courthouse and Courthouse Café are located. Those restrictions discouraged businesses from even making repairs to structures, said Kelly McLellan, community services director.

So, the Council discussed and ultimately accepted an amendment that will allow a variance process for zoning. Under the new ordinance, the Council can approve zoning variances.

The council also discussed changing the direction of traffic between the Courthouse and Courthouse Café from a two-way to a one-way street. This discussion came up because there have been several accidents with people trying to back out from parking spots in this section of Main Street, McLellan said.

Council members rejected the one-way traffic proposal but agreed to look at possibly changing the direction of the parking spots.