Fairhope, Alabama
 |
| Director Matthew Brown |
 |
| Organizer Marla Barnes. |
DISTRICT 14 REFERENDUM APPROACHING
County Planning director Mathew Brown and organizer Marla Barnes explained the technicalities of the upcoming zoning referendum and answered questions from a standing-room-only audience in the Little Bohemian Hall in Silverhill this afternoon.
Barnes said she is a 28 year resident of the Marlow community and actually voted against zoning the last time it came up 12 years ago -- but has become more "educated" about it now.
She described the currently-unzoned district as a "target for developers" today.
Brown said he was only a guest at the meeting, had no role in organizing it, and described the process as entirely citizen driven: registered voters in the district petitioned the county commission for the referendum.
He said zoning used to be a"city thing" -- but new types of rural zoning have become popular recently, such as base community zoning where everything stays basically the same as now, unless major changes are proposed by property owners.
Brown: "This is not municipal zoning."
If approved on June 6 there will be an immediate 180 day moratorium on all new development applications (except smaller residential types) -- until a five person committee of citizens selected from the district meets to develop the new zoning map.
Then the county commission will then vote to enact it, Brown said.
District 14 runs generally down the east side of Fish River from Silverhill to just south of Marlow.
(Brown said a minor discrepancy discovered involving one lot in the proposed district will be corrected before June 6th.)
Comments