If the ordinance could not be amended, the two landlords were asking whether a portion of vacated business buildings on Wollan St., and a space originally built as an apartment at Harry's Barbershop, but has since been rented out as a church office, could be rezoned.

Councilman Tom Goracke contended by changing the ordinance to allow all main floor apartments, the city could be faced with a situation where there are main floor apartments in the downtown area. Instead of rewriting the ordinance, he suggested the city should look at rezoning a portion of Wollan St. to something other than business.

"I think we should rezone that street myself, instead of changing this ordinance," he said.

Mayor Steve Dinsmore said in his opinion the portion of Wollan St. in question should be rezoned to allow residential buildings. He said the portion of the street, which once housed businesses, hasn't done so in a number of years.

"In light of where the properties are, there hasn't been any commercial there for years," he said.

Rather than reworking the ordinance, the council moved to hold a public hearing and move forward with rezoning part of the 500 block of Wollan St. The meeting will be meant to gather public input on whether or not the portion of the street should be rezoned to something other than business.

The actual portion of the buildings includes less than one block of buildings. The rezoning will begin just north of John's Star Motor and Samuelsons' Drug Store.

However, even if the portion of Wollan St. is rezoned to something other than business, it would not solve the question of whether Blok can rent out space in his barbershop building as an apartment.

Blok said the building was originally built as a dual purpose structure, with a business built on each side of an apartment. While built as an apartment, the space was more recently rented out as a church office for the Immanuel/Indherred Church Office.

The council has contended in the past that Blok lost his grandfather rights to use the space as an apartment when he rented out the space as a business, but on Monday night Blok was again asking whether there was something he could do to once again rent out the space as an apartment.

The council instructed Blok to seek a variance, rather than amending the ordinance, to allow him to rent out the space as a main-floor apartment.

A similar variance was turned down in a split vote last August, but the new council instructed Blok to seek another variance and see if a resolution to the matter can be reached.