Neighbors said they were disappointed by the Albany City Council's decision Wednesday to rezone two properties on Sixth Avenue S.W. near Broadalbin Street.

They were against the proposed rezoning from single-family residential to office professional at 319 Sixth Ave. S.W. and 321 Sixth Ave. S.W. Older homes are on both properties.

The council did, however, retain the residential designation for two parking lots on the northeast corner of Sixth and Broadalbin.

The vote was 4-1. Voting in favor were Ralph Reid Jr., Dan Bedore, Bessie Johnson and Jeff Christman. Opposed was Dick Olsen, an advocate for neighborhood protection. The properties are in his ward.

Council President Sharon Konopa only could have voted in case of a tie, because she served as acting mayor in Doug Killin's absence. She said, however, that she preferred that all four properties be zoned residential.

Neighborhood comments offered under business from the public before the vote centered on reoccurring themes:

Neighbors appreciated the maintenance efforts of David Beckham, whose law office is in one of the homes, and T.J. McManus, who owns the other house that once housed an architect's office. But the neighbors worried about what could happen to the homes when someone else buys the properties.

Tye Dodge said if the houses were demolished or offices built on the now vacant lots, destruction of the historic Monteith neighborhood through blight would likely follow. He said new offices would increase traffic in the neighborhood and create parking space problems.

Dan Conway wondered why the council was even considering office zoning when the planning commission had voted unanimously for the residential designation for all four properties.

Jodi Nelson said commercial development already was seeping into the neighborhood.

"Would people who do not live downtown want a business next to them?" she asked.

Lisa Freeman said there already was plenty of vacant office space downtown so additional space in their neighborhood was not needed.

Bedore said he was not convinced that the owners of the two houses wanted to "exploit" their properties by tearing down their homes and putting up "brick and glass buildings." He was convinced protections were in place to protect the houses.

But Olsen said the MacManus house was for sale so there were no guarantees that the house would be saved or another house built in its place.

Planning staff had proposed the zoning changes to better match the commercial operations taking place on the properties.

In other business Wednesday, the council:

- Modified the qualifying income levels for the water payment assistance fund from 30 percent of median family income for Linn County to 50 percent. As a result, qualifying income for a family of four will go from $16,000 a year to $26,700.

- Approved a number of fee changes charged for services performed by the planning division. Increases in fees were designated for, among other services, appeals to the council, appeals to a hearings officer, historic reviews, subdivision and partition plats, property line adjustments and site plan reviews.

- Agreed to accept a ThermoVision imaging camera from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at no cost to the city. The camera is valued at $15,500. The police department will use it as a surveillance and tactical tool to spot perpetrators and locate missing people.