Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By JOYANNA LOVE/ Managing Editor

The Clanton City Council approved two rezoning requests during a voting session on June 14.

A request to rezone 1000 Duren Road from M-1 Light Industrial to B-3 Neighborhood Business District was approved unanimously after the second reading of the ordinance. The plan is for the building to be used as a daycare. There was no opposition voiced during the meeting.

A request to rezone 1001 Seventh St. S from M-1 Light Industrial to R-1-A Single Family Residential was approved unanimously after the City Council voted to suspend the rules and allow it to be voted on during the same meeting as the first reading.

In the June 10 work session, Mayor Jeff Mims and City Clerk Jonathan Seale said the request had been delayed through no fault of the property owner, and Mims recommended suspending the rule requiring two readings because of this. There was no opposition.

However, community resident Ray Hardesty did speak in opposition to a rezoning request for  County Road 633, Pin. No. 9588 from M-R Municipal Reserve to R-G Residential Garden District.

The request is being made by F&P Land Development.

Hardesty voiced concerns at the number of homes, estimated to be 60, that the developer would be able to put on the 17 acres if it was Residential Garden District, which would increase traffic on a road that already had two subdivisions on it.

“I would like you to think about the city’s infrastructure, and is this going to be harmonious with the long-term plan,” Hardesty said.

The rezoning is expected to be voted on at the June 28 meeting of the Clanton City Council on the second reading of the rezoning ordinance.

Votes on rezoning two properties  the city owns are also expected at that meeting, including the Chilton County Arts Council building, 500 Fifth Ave. N, from R-2 Single Family/ Two Family Residential to Office Building District and 502 Fifth Ave. N from R-2 Single Family/ Two Family Residential District to O-1 Office Building District. Butterfly Bridge Children’s Advocacy Center is in negotiations with the city to lease or purchase 502 Fifth Ave. N.

The first readings of these rezoning ordinances were done during the June 14 meeting. A first reading of an ordinance amending the draft beer sale ordinance to have the first day of sales start on Aug. 1 and an ordinance to increase the height allowances in the Central Business District and General Business District to 85 feet was also completed.

Mims said this height allowance change would help the city in possible future recruitment of hotels to the area.

The City Council also approved:

• Leasing a Caterpillar 323 Excavator.
• Declaring a plot of land near the airport runway surplus and giving it to the Chilton County Airport Authority.
• Membership in the Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority and appointing Mims to serve on the board. Mims explained this will give the city options it does not currently have. He said the city is paying $53 a tin for garbage disposal, and he would like to find a less expensive option.
• Changing the municipal court meeting time to 1 p.m.
• Purchasing a Dakota multiuser restroom facility, which runs off a well, to be placed at Ollie Park. Mims said the current facilities have deteriorated, and he would like to use this model restroom for all park restrooms replaced in the future. The cost is expected to be $108,000.

 

Clanton City Hall will be closed July 5 in observance of Independence Day.