The Columbus Planning Commission Monday approved a request from Chalma Whitaker to rezone property at 4340 Highway 45 N. from an R-1 single-family residential district to a C-3 highway commercial district.
Whitaker plans to sell the five-acre piece of property and “thought it would be better if (it was zoned) commercial,” he explained.
Neighbors, including Jim Nolen, who lives “on the backside” of Whitaker”s property, which is located two parcels south of Spivey Road, expressed concerns of losing their privacy if the property were developed commercially.
But they were told a local zoning ordinance stipulates commercially developed property must be enclosed within a six-foot high fence and have a 35-foot “buffer zone” from neighboring residential property.
Other neighbors, including attorney David Owen, who submitted a letter to the Planning Commission to be read in his absence, and Doris Eaves, who owns two parcels of property near Owen”s property, expressed their support of the rezoning.
“It looks like the character of the neighborhood is already going (to C-3 zoning),” said Planning Commission member Wythe Rhett.
In other matters, the commission:
The property rezoned is a 30-foot strip of land directly in front of Waverly Apartments; the adjacent property previously was rezoned to a neighborhood commercial, restricted district, but the strip rezoned Monday was not included in the original property description.
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