Boards updated on development code

Published 4:23 pm Friday, March 2, 2007

Members of the Natchez zoning and planning boards were updated on the progress of a new development code at Thursday’s zoning board meeting.

A rough draft of a new written code, which, among other things, provides zoning use districts that cover mobile homes and highway businesses, was first presented to the public in June.

Since then, changes made to the existing code, changes which covered townhouses and private drives, were included in the new plan.

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Corinne Fox, a certified planner from Jackson, helped design the new code and updated the board Thursday.

“Most changes don’t affect people,” Fox said. “The way the land is being used will be the same.”

The new code will not change city wards or preservation districts at all, she said.

Existing structures will be grandfathered in, Fox said, but zoning variances and special exceptions will be strongly discouraged.

“We need to try to get away from the use of variances,” she said.

Also under the new code, the zoning and planning boards would be combined into one.

Fox said she and the city planning department have been working on creating a new zoning map to accompany the written code.

“We’ve been looking at the existing map and bringing it up to date,” she said.

Because the city went months without a city planner and the city attorney, who had worked closely on the project, retired in the middle of the process, change has taken longer than expected, Fox said.

“It was put on the back burner without a planner and a city attorney,” Fox said. “Now that we have both in place, we’ve been meeting.”

The code will be presented to the board of aldermen at their planned Tuesday work session, Fox said.

Several informal meetings with the public are planned to take place to educate each ward, she said. That way, when the public hearing is held, legally required before passing the code, residents will have a better understanding of what the changes mean for them.

In other business:

4The board approved a special exception to construct a church in a single family residential zoning district on 35 Triumph Lane.

4The board approved a variance to place residential units and a 10-foot front yard setback in a general business zoning district on the corner of Wall Street and Briel Avenue.

4The board approved a variance to replace a mobile home with a larger one in a single family residential zoning district at 3 Homewood Drive.

4The board denied a special exception to build a beauty shop in a single family residential zoning district on 224 Oakland Drive.

4The board denied a variance to operate a funeral home in a residential district at 1100 and 1102 Martin Luther King Street. Board members Bettye Bell and Edward Godfrey voted against the denial, asking that the applicant have more time to review his options as the residential zone is surrounded by more business-friendly zones.