Jury still out on whether plans for county zoning are to move forward (View Video Here)

A move toward county zoning seems to have stalled at least for now.

View Proposed County Zoning Map at link below)

Proposed Zoning Map

In recent months the DeKalb County Regional Planning Commission has been conducting a study, at the request of the county commission (11-1 vote last September), on the development of a plan for county zoning, outside the municipalities. A resolution is in the works, and a proposed county zoning map was unveiled at the April planning commission meeting. At that time the planning commission decided to send the proposed map to the full county commission for review and if the commission still wanted to move forward changes could be made before or after it was sent back to the planning commission for further study. The planning commission’s final recommendation for passage of a county zoning resolution and map, which could still be months away, must then return to the county commission for a vote on implementation followed by a public hearing. But instead of making progress on zoning, the effort seems to have stalled with a more divided county commission.

During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission took two separate votes but neither failed to get a majority from the 14-member body on making any recommendation back to the planning commission.

The first motion was made by Commissioner Larry Green to “send it back to the planning commission for further study”. Commissioner Tony Luna offered a second to the motion. Although the vote was 7 to 4 in favor it failed because 8 votes (of the 14 member commission) were needed to make it official. Three commissioners, Myron Rhody, Tom Chandler, and Tony “Cully” Culwell were absent. Those voting in favor in addition to Commissioners Green and Luna were Beth Pafford, Andy Pack, Mathias Anderson, Brandon Donnell, and Sabrina Farler. Commissioners voting no were Greg Matthews, Glynn Merriman, Daniel Cripps, and Jeff Barnes. Both Matthews and Barnes (no votes) are members of the planning commission. Commissioners Pafford and Pack are also planning commission members.

Commissioner Luna later in the meeting moved to table the discussion until the next county commission workshop in June and Commissioner Green seconded the motion. But again the result was 7-4 in favor with 8 votes needed for approval.

The issue may still be revisited by the county commission later and it doesn’t preclude the planning commission from continuing its study.

“I don’t like this. It’s 14 people (county commission) telling county residents what they can do with their property. Its more government over people. I don’t like that and I don’t think its fair,” said Merriman.

“All this is just exploring. We are not passing anything tonight,” replied Commissioner Luna.

Commissioner Pafford said a fair hearing should be given on the study.”

“We really haven’t talked about this a whole lot. The map was just presented to us a couple of months ago. He (Tommy Lee, Director of the Upper Cumberland Development District, who serves as UCDD staff planner and advisor to DeKalb County) said it’s the initial one and we should get feedback. I believe it has to go before the public for a hearing before it can ever get passed by the county commission. Other counties have taken a couple of years to get it (zoning) worked out. Now that we have (discovered) a (county) growth plan we could use that in the study. All the information the planning commission can get would be helpful,” said Commissioner Pafford.

At the meeting in April, Lee explained what the planning commission has accomplished to date.

“For the last six months or so the planning commission has been working on a proposed zoning resolution to regulate land use within unincorporated DeKalb County. To go along with that resolution, you must have a zoning map which identifies every parcel in unincorporated DeKalb County and places a zoning designation on that parcel. Tonight (Monday, April 14) what we did was the planning commission reviewed the proposed zoning map and recommended that the county commission review it and give us some feedback on it,” said Lee.

Using neighboring Cannon County’s zoning ordinance as a model, Lee explained that the proposed DeKalb County resolution and zoning map also has basically four zoning districts: residential, commercial, industrial, and agriculture.

“There are four different designations on the zoning map. The color green represents agriculture and makes up about 95% of the county. The yellow designation is for residential. Purple is for industrial and red is for commercial lots,” said Lee.

In September, the county commission voted 11-1 to authorize the county planning commission to begin the process of establishing criteria for zoning in DeKalb County outside the municipalities which already have zoning subject to a public hearing and final adoption by the county commission.

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