City Council Upholds Banning Old Mobile Home From R-1 Zone
In the end, the Commerce City Council could not find a way to let Roy Poole continue to keep a mobile home in an R-1 (single-family residential) area on State Street.
On a 3-2 vote, the council accepted the recommendation of its planning commission to deny Poole’s request for a variance in the city’s zoning ordinance.
Poole bought the 1950s era trailer as a rental investment. It was a nonconforming use in R-1 which was grandfathered in at the time the area was zoned. Where he ran afoul of the city was when he left the utilities disconnected for 20 months, during which time a prospective tenant remodeled the inside. The zoning ordinance requires that a permitted nonconforming use that is discontinued for more than six months cannot be put back into use until it meets current zoning standards.
The effect of the ruling is that the mobile home cannot be occupied on the site.
It was at an inspection prior to turning the power back on that the city’s building inspectors discovered the discontinuance and refused to allow the property to be used.
At its work session a week earlier, the council expressed interest in trying to accommodate Poole. As it turned out, the only way the property could be re-used with a mobile home would be to rezone it R-5.
“Is there anything we can do?” asked Ward 3 Councilman Mark Fitzpatrick.
“We can’t change it without breaking the law,” answered Mayor Charles L. Hardy Jr.
“The only thing that would make it conform is an R-5 zoning,” added Ward 4 Councilman Bob Sosebee, who added, “If we approve this (the variance), I don’t see how we could ever defend the ordinance in court.”
Poole argued that he knew of other areas in the city where people “moved mobile homes in where the weren’t supposed to be.”
“I’m not bringing anything new in there,” he insisted.
Ward 5 Councilman Richard Massey made the motion to accept the planning commission’s recommendation. Sosebee, Fitzpatrick and Mayor Pro Tem Dusty Slater voted with him. Ward 2 Councilman Donald Wilson and Ward 1 Councilman Wayne Gholston voted against the motion.
Appointments
The council also made three appointments. On a unanimous vote, it re-elected Bobby Burley to another four-year term on the Commerce Civic Center and Tourism Authority, but the move to replace Don Moore on the same authority took a rare tie-breaking vote by Hardy.
Massey nominated Sidney Fink, and Wilson nominated Patsy Morrison for the vacancy. Massey, Sosebee and Fitzpatrick voted for Fink, while Slater, Wilson and Gholston voted for Morrison. Hardy broke the tie and voted for Fink.
Former Commerce fire chief Johnny Eubanks was unanimously elected to replace Mark McCannon on the Commerce Planning Commission. McCannon asked not to be reappointed.
Also on Monday night, the council:
•approved a resolution authorizing the Commerce Board of Education to levy a 17.75-mill tax rate to operate the schools. The city discovered during the past year that even with a change to the city charter granting taxing authority to the school board, it must still get the city’s blessing.
•voted to enter a 20-year contract with the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia to purchase 1,724 kilowatts of peaking power at $43.80 per kilowatt hour. That is a fixed price for 20 years. “I think that’s a good deal, guys,” advised City Manager Clarence Bryant. The electricity will be purchased only at times when the system is at peak demand - when electricity is most expensive. The city also has the right to sell that power if it does not need it and some other MEAG member does.
•heard from Finance Director Steve McKown that the city ended its first quarter $513,000 in the black, thanks in large part to the payment from Jackson County of $302,000 long owed for the county’s share of the Edwards Creek sewer project.
•learned that the Department of Community Affairs has awarded a $305,000 revolving loan grant to Rob Jordan, for work he will do on the building housing WJJC Radio. The total comprises $250,000 in low-interest loan money from the DCA, $52,000 to be put in by Jordan, and $2,500 from the Commerce Downtown Development Authority’s facade grant program. That money comes from some $21,000 donated to the program by local banks, so there is no city money involved in the project.
•approved a 20-year lease renewal - at $10 - with the Commerce Housing Authority, which leases a small tract of land from the city in conjunction with its Bellview Homes housing project.
•approved the $2,385 annual payment to the Jackson County Certified Literate Community program pending the completion of a service contract with the agency.
