The Sycamore Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended that the City Council approve a zoning change request that will impact an anticipated rebuild of Tom & Jerry’s restaurant.

Tom & Jerry’s, 1670 DeKalb Ave., was destroyed by a fire that broke out early in the morning on Jan. 31. Management reopened the restaurant from a temporary location, 265 W. Peace Road, on Saturday.

The owners have plans to rebuild on the DeKalb Avenue property, however.

The city’s commission voted 8-0 to recommend that city officials authorize a change to the zoning for their DeKalb Avenue property on Monday. That request would change the property from central business district zoning to highway business district.

While city documents appeared to suggest that the zoning request came from the owners of Tom & Jerry’s, Hall said city staff initiated the zoning change.

“The request is by, actually, staff, and then they have the paperwork in order to do it,” Hall said.

Sycamore Community Developer John Sauter said that there are a handful of properties near the former Tom & Jerry’s location that he hopes will be rezoned similarly in the future. He also said the request to rezone the property didn’t start with Tom & Jerry’s owners.

“We talked with them and suggested that they do it,” Sauter said. “This is a city request. They’re basically just participating. So, they were willing to rezone it. It really means nothing other than a color on a map, but it makes our map align better.”

Before the request was formally discussed, Sycamore Mayor Steve Braser, who doesn’t sit on the commission but often attends the meetings, spoke during the public comment period.

“I just want to say to you guys, thank you so much for showing up,” Braser said. “When there’s a small agenda like this, it seems trivial, it’s appreciative of your commitment to this commission,” Braser said.