City Council voted on a number of zoning ordinances from the planning commission at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. The council voted to approved the zoning ordinances after residents asked them to deny it.
The Council moved the meeting to start at 5 p.m. instead of the usual 7 p.m. time to allow for the discussion on the zoning ordinances.
The first zoning ordinance would rezone approximately 700 acres south of Mrs. James Road and west of the Camden West subdivision from rural to development district housing.
Blake Rice, spokesperson for the developer and area manager at Barrett-Simpson, said that the the development has taken four years and said it is rare to have an opportunity to properly plan a community.
“When developments are done in a way that makes sense to everyone involved, it gives the opportunity to provide amenities both constructed and use of natural open space areas,” Rice said.
Council member Beth Witten of Ward 3 said that the property owner will develop the land and the City Council has an opportunity to have control of what is being developed.
The second ordinance is the application of the planned development district to the approximate 900 acres in which the rezoning for the first ordinance is located.
The PDD is the developers plan for the zoned development district housing which includes developing homes, a school site and a food truck area.
The Planning Commission did not originally recommend approval of the second ordinance. Megan Crouch, city manager, said if the council were to approve the rezoning request that the staff recommended conditions be added to the request.
The conditions for the second ordinance include concerns over school access, tree preservation, increase lot size for single family units, traffic and other development considerations.
Council members moved to amend this ordinance with the included conditions recommended by the City staff. The amended ordinance was approved with a 7-2 vote.
The third ordinance deals with an amendment to the Hamilton Place planned development district located at the northeast corner of Moores Mill Road and Hamilton Road.
Residents came up to speak out against approval of the third ordinance and asked council members to vote against it.
Residents speaking against the development echoed some of the same concerns that it may bring to their area.
Andrew Price, a resident of the Bent Brook development, said he had three main concerns that include traffic, trash and a decrease in property value.
“It is already extremely difficult to turn left out of our neighborhood in the morning and afternoon due to the high volume of traffic, limited sight distance and traffic speed,” Price said.
The Council had already voted no previously for the same ordinance and the Planning Commission had recommended it be denied. Greg Justice, a resident of the Bent Brook development, brought this up when making his argument.
“The Planning Comission is against it, the Comp 2030 plan is not supporting it, so it begs the question why would anybody support it,” Justice said.
Brett Basquin, representative for TD Development, spoke to address questions from the Council and things said by residents.
“I know one of the things I think that concerns a lot of the citizens is the expansion of this commercial sector east,” Basquin said.
Basquin said the plan is bound to the west by a shopping center and to the east the plan is bound by a creek. He explained that the plan would not be possible without the shopping center and expansion would occur if the plan were to be denied.
The council approved the ordinance and approved a resolution that would change the mentioned neighborhood shopping center to a community shopping center in a 5-4 vote.
Billy Allen, president of the Lee County NAACP, said that they are displeased with the decision made at the previous City Council meeting and said they will continue their efforts to get a second majority-minority district for Auburn.
“Number two, we will be highly active and involved in the election campaign period leading up to the Aug. 23, 2022 city election,” Allen said. “Number three, we will be highly active and involved in the election on Aug. 23 to elect people that support our interests, that support our issues and support our concerns.”
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