The Hancock County Plan Commission granted a continuance to a proposed RV and boat storage facility seeking a rezone at the commission’s meeting last Tuesday, Sept. 24.
The petitioner, Kim Medlin of Outback Storage, was seeking a rezone to change the site, located at 204 N. Main St. in Maxwell, just north of the intermediate school, from residential to industrial light, which has a special use exception that allows for RV and boat storage. A second petition would need to be filed with the county board of zoning appeals for that exception if Outback was granted its initial rezone.
The biggest conflict surrounding the petition was not on the merits of the petition itself, instead focusing on its legality. Any petitioner to the Plan Commission, if they do not receive approval from the Board of Commissioners, must wait a year to file that same petition a second time. Medlin filed a petition for the same site plan back in April, but the April petition sought to zone the area as an industrial business park, which would not have required BZA approval. The site, though, didn’t meet the space requirements for IBP zoning and was ultimately denied by the commissioners.
The commission’s two elected officials, county commissioner Gary McDaniel and county councilman Scott Wooldridge, were both insistent that since the site plan had not changed, the petition was not different enough and should be subject to the year-long waiting period. Several members of the board, however, including the board’s president, Michael Long, said that the fact that the zoning request was different made the petition sufficiently changed.
Long also noted that when the petitioner last appeared before the commission in April, it was members of the commission itself that suggested the IL zoning as more appropriate for the site and its proposed use. This is supported by minutes from the April meeting.
Rhonda Cook, the Plan Commission’s attorney, said that the decision of whether or not the petition was sufficiently different wasn’t really the commission’s call, it was Planning Executive Director Kayla Brooks’s. After a long deliberation, the board decided to hear the petition.
The site received an unfavorable recommendation from staff, with Brooks noting that the site goes against the county’s comprehensive plan, which lists the area as a future neighborhood. She also said that county staff felt the development wasn’t in keeping with current construction, wasn’t responsible growth, and wasn’t the most responsible use for the area.
Medlin spoke next, immediately saying she wouldn’t withdraw (after some prodding that she should from the commission). She said that she had several letters of support from neighboring residents and that the comprehensive plan’s idea for a future neighborhood was unrealistic, as the property owners surrounding her would be unlikely to sell. She also highlighted the improvement from the IBP zoning petition to the IL petition in terms of fitting the site.
After a second round of debate over the legality of the petition, in which McDaniel suggested that this petition was merely a workaround of the rules by the petitioner, commission member Byron Holden moved to give the site a favorable recommendation, which was seconded after a long pause by Dean Fout. When the motion went to roll call vote, though, it failed 5-3. Wooldridge then called for a continuance to give more time to determine the legality of the petition, which was passed unanimously.
The petition will appear again at the Plan Commission’s Oct. 24 meeting.
