The Auburn City Council held a moment of silence and prayer for those afflicted by the tornadoes in Beauregard at the start of this week’s meeting.
After the moment of silence, the council nominated two people for the vacancy on the Board of Education. After 21 applications and an extensive interview process, Florence Holland and Kathy Powell were nominated for the vacant spot.
In a 5-4 vote, council chose Kathy Powell for the position.
The council also decided to table the vote for the Academic Detached Dwelling Units until the April 2 meeting, giving the council a month to revise and discuss the ordinance in whole.
Auburn Assistant City Manager Kevin Cowper said that since the last meeting, city staff had reached out to interested parties to come up with some ideas for compromise.
“Procedurally, changes can be made by the City Council without it going back to the planning commission,” Cowper said. “Depending on the volume of those changes, we may recommend it go back to the planning commission for their recommendation.”
Cowper said a month should be plenty of time to implement any changes to the ordinance. “We know what needs to be done and can make the changes in that time frame,” Cowper said.
Auburn City Manager Jim Buston previously told The Plainsman multiple City Council members had met with city staff over the last two weeks in order to get more information on the ordinance.
Auburn Planing Director Forrest Cotten said he had spoken with multiple developers about issues they had with the ordinance, like off-street parking.
Cotten also said the city is considering making the ADDU permitted by right in certain districts.
“We’ve been requested to look at two districts in particular, and the prospect of permitting this new use type by right,” Cotton said. “One is the neighborhood redevelopment district, which is the ground zero for this in the Frasier-Canton area. The other district is the redevelopment district.”
The mayor and City Council also addressed the incident that occurred at Mama Mocha’s on Gay Street where a man shouted Nazi slogans and made aggressive gestures toward customers.
“If we are to talk about diversity and inclusion, we have to acknowledge these moments, however ugly they may be, and speak to them directly so this community knows that we’re not going to tolerate that kind of behavior,” said councilmember Bob Parsons.
Mayor Anders released an official statement saying that Auburn is a community that includes many different perspectives and views and Auburn citizens respect those differences.
“My responsibility as mayor is not to just embrace differences but protect those differences,” Anders said.
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