By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- The planned new Taco Bell restaurant on Market cleared a hurdle Monday night with a zoning change approval.

The vote amends local law to change the zoning at 3 Sisson St. from residential designation R-1 to business category B-2.

That allows that parcel to be combined with the next-door Scott Ford land to build a Taco Bell restaurant there, next to SeaComm Plaza on outer Market Street.

The Potsdam Village Board of Trustees had put the vote off the first time it was on the agenda because there was not a quorum at the Oct. 18 meeting. The vote was taken after a public hearing on the change that preceded the regular meeting. No one from the public offered any comment on the change, Mayor Ron Tischler said.

Developer Steve Pinkerton, an Ogdensburg native who runs Hospitality Syracuse, Inc., has said his purchase of the Sisson Street property, now owned by James and Michelle Sheehan, was contingent on the zoning change.

Several more steps will have to be taken before the project goes ahead, including an area variance and a site plan review. The county Planning Board will also review the plan at more than one stage, according to Potsdam Planning Board Chair Jim Corbett.

“I’m very optimistic,” said developer Pinkerton after a recent Planning Board meeting. “I’m very much looking forward to the opportunity.”