The effort to build a new parking lot behind the Sonic Drive-In at Highway 12 and Vine Street was delayed Tuesday night when restaurant representatives withdrew their rezoning request and vowed to come back with another.
Local Sonic Chief Operating Officer Mark Welch said he plans to return to the city with a new request to turn the property into a buffer zone instead of a C-2 general business zone, and include a paved parking lot, privacy fence and shrubs to help protect neighbors from noise.
Several Vine Street residents and the city”s Planning and Zoning Commission expressed concerns Tuesday night about the effects a new parking lot would have on the neighborhood. The property in question is located at 711 Vine St., between Sonic and more than a half dozen nearby houses. A dilapidated home was located on the 0.17-acre property until it was demolished when Sonic bought the land in 2003. The property is now vacant.
Welch said he wants to turn the empty property into a parking lot for Sonic employees and move a Dumpster onto the lot, away from Vine Street where it now sits. He also wants to move a small storage building from just behind Sonic onto the lot.
Four nearby residents attended the meeting and two spoke out in opposition. Their concerns focused on noise and traffic, which already are recurring problems, said Vine Street resident Mynyown Arnold. Additionally, trash from the Sonic Dumpster on Vine Street already blows around the street and sits in nearby yards, she said.
Arnold pleaded with the board, which serves in an advisory capacity to the Starkville Board of Aldermen, to vote against the rezoning request and instead urge Sonic to clean up their existing property.
“It can be fixed up without being rezoned,” Arnold said.
Sonic would not be able to build a parking lot on the property under its current R-3 multi-family residential zoning, but could in a C-2 zone.
Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Dr. Jerry Emison opined Welch should come back to the city with a request to turn the property from R-3 into a B-1 buffer zone instead of a C-2 zone. He also recommended Welch submit a conditional-use request and work with neighbors and City Planner Ben Griffith to design a lot, with conditions attached, which is satisfactory to both Sonic and Vine Street residents.
Welch then withdrew his request and said he would come back with a new request to turn the property into a buffer zone with a privacy fence and landscaping to help minimize noise. Welch said the new parking lot would benefit nearby residents because the Dumpster would be located in the rear of the property, adjacent to Captain D”s Dumpster. The relocation of the Dumpster into the new parking lot would improve the appearance of Sonic and the rest of Vine Street, he said.
“It”s going to make that corner a lot better for all of us,” Welch said.
In other business Tuesday night, the planning and zoning commission approved a conditional use request from Bettye Bell to place a single-wide manufactured home on her property at 973 Sudduth Road. The planning and zoning commission also approved a final plat for a home and subdivision of two lots at 502 and 504 Vine St.
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