The city then informed Blok, who was seeking to rent out the property as an apartment, to seek a variance for the property and it would be addressed on an individual basis.

On Monday, Blok made his case to the council to allow him to continue to rent out the apartment. He told the council that on two separate occasions he advertised the building for rent in an attempt to fill the vacated property. However, Blok said there currently isn't a big demand for business space right now. He said he had inquiries into renting out the space as an apartment and rather than leaving the building empty, he rented the space as an apartment, and in turn wanted to get a variance to allow the apartment to stay.

After hearing his case, the council recessed the hearing until Councilman Jamie Logan was present.

Later in the meeting, the council readdressed the issue reading through the variance codes which gives various reasons to approve and deny variance requests.

After reading through the material Logan said he felt the ordinance was in place and the variance shouldn't be approved. "I don't think we should personally," he said.

"I agree," said Goracke.

Both Councilman Larry Noyes and Mayor Milo Holte agreed and voted against the variance request.

Councilman Jim Johnson said he understood the ordinance, but felt the situation is unique given the building was originally built as an apartment and therefore voted to approve the variance.

However, the request was denied by a 4-1 margin, meaning the building can no longer be used as an apartment and must remain as commercial property.