Warner Robins talk divisive rezoning

On Monday, July 19, Warner Robins Mayor and Council met to hold its second biweekly meeting for the month of July. At the meeting, council tackled an extensive agenda with several rezonings, ordinances and resolutions to pass. Per usual, the council began their meeting with a prayer led by Councilman Charlie Bibb, and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilman Larry Curtis. Following these opening items, Mayor Randy Toms called the meeting to order, and council moved to adopt their agenda and begin their work. In adopting the agenda, Toms requested that the scheduled closed session be removed, and that the purchasing bids list be edited.

The first major topic discussed was on a rezoning for Three Oaks Construction and Development, Inc. After a brief explanation of the planned development from the developer, mayor and council asked several questions and discussed several issues with the development. Among the topics discussed were drainage issues, ingress and egress, and the amount of lots planned for the land. Members of the neighborhood also brought forth concerns.

Once citizen, Bo Howard, acted as representative for the surroundings neighborhoods. “We basically have three major concerns,” Howard said. “The traffic, property values and the drainage issues.” According to Howard, due to the rezoning and eventual development of the area, constituents are afraid of traffic issues following the construction of more than 100 additional homes in the area. The community also reported fears the devaluing of their property with smaller homes being built in the area. Finally, Howard brought forward fears of floods. According to Howard, the neighborhoods surrounding the area in question are consistently dealing with drainage issues and yards flooding after heavy rains.

Much contention came from the rezoning request at its most basic level: going from an R-1 zoning, where larger lots are required, to R-2, where smaller, cheaper lots can be built. On this topic, council seemed divided. On one side were a number of councilmen who seemed hesitant to grant the request due to it being more cost effective for the developer, but potentially harmful for the community and area in there long run.

“I’m for development,” Councilman Derek Mack said, “but there needs to be accountability all the way across. If the sole purpose of you downgrading this from R-1 to R-2 is to make it convenient for you, to make a profit at the expense of the current homeowner, that’s really touchy for me.”

Others claimed that the rezoning would be more cost effective, and that due to the developer’s plans, may be beneficial in the long run.

After much deliberation, the council moved and approved the denial of this request. This denial was met with applause from the surrounding community’s constituents.

Council then moved on to discuss an ordinance to change several job classifications, covering several departments within the city’s government, ranging from public safety, to utilities, to community and economic development. This item was approved unanimously.

Mayor and council moved on to discuss two other rezonings, an annexation, two intergovernmental agreements, and the creation of a new board for the municipality, the Citizen Advisory Board. All of these items were approved without much in the way of discussion.

Following these items, the council moved forward into the comment period of the agenda. After each councilman and the mayor made their comments, this meeting was brought to adjournment.

HHJ News