By Karen Middleton
karen@athensnews-courier.com
September 18, 2007 09:45 pm
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What is a family?
The answers might be many and varied depending on one’s perspective one, but the question has practical application when a city must rule how many people can reside in a single dwelling.
Rod Huffman, chairman of the Athens Planning Commission, clarified the meaning Monday of “family” in the writing of a draft zoning ordinance to go to the City Council for approval.
The commission held a hearing on the draft ordinance in recent months, but some residents said they wanted the matter clarified of how many unrelated people could reside in the same house and still call themselves a family.
One of those residents, Lawson Lee, said his property values and those of some of his neighbors in north Athens are being compromised by what appears to be multiple families living in nearby rental houses.
“An individual or two or more related by blood or legal status, but no more than five unrelated people can live together as a family,” said Huffman. “The maximum is five if they are unrelated, but if they are related by blood or legal status, the number is unlimited.”
Planning Commission member Gina Garth pointed out that college towns have similar ordinances, so the rules are not directed at any ethnic group.
After the hearing of several weeks ago, Huffman said he sent the draft ordinance—containing the first revisions in 23 years—to a consultant for review. The document came back with six areas that the consultant recommended be clarified.
“We are going to recommend the ordinance to the council for adoption, but we are saying they need to further consider the six staff recommendations, and it will be incumbent on them to make the changes,” said Huffman.
Among the six areas are:
• Removal of the terms “accessory dwellings” which are not allowed under the ordinance.
• More public input on the location and establishment of cemeteries.
• Removal of all mention of pigs and swine, because those farm animals are not permitted by the animal control ordinance.
• Remove hotels from multi-family residential.
• Allow flexibility in parking for businesses as long as they meet sufficient access and circulation space.
• Tattoo parlors should be included in B-3 as conditional use; wrecker services should be included in M-1 permitted use.
The rewriting of the zoning ordinances was conducted by 20 members of the community and was done in accordance with the city of Athens Master Plan, published in 2002.
Other business
In other business, the commission:
• Approved a request of Wayne and Beverly Lewis to rezone 9.10 acres of property from B-3 (Highway business district) to R-1 (Low density residential) at the east end of Hatfield Lake Road. The property will be used by their daughter to build a home on the site of the old lake and skating rink.
• Granted certificates to subdivide for Kent Harris of Lot 63 of Holland East Subdivision to transfer .043 acres into Lot 62 owned by Bill Mathews to accommodate a swimming pool.
• Consolidated Lots 33 through 38 into one lot on the east margin of Hine Street and the south margin of Sixth Avenue, at the request of Mike Adams.
• Held a public hearing and approved a minor subdivision of property into two lots, zoned R-1, at Lucas Ferry and Sanderfer Road at the request of Phillip Morris and Susan Fry. If the subdivided land is developed, the developer must install sewer.
• Held a public hearing and gave preliminary approval to developer Keith Griffin of a 13-lot addition to Oaks East Subdivision at Nick Davis and Oakdale Roads, to be known as Phase 3, and zoned R-2 medium density.
• Granted conceptual approval for 44 lots of Elkton Street Development, south of Elm Street, east of Frazier Street and west of Elkton Street, to be zoned R-3, high density residential.
• Held a public hearing for the Athens Traffic Circulation Standards, which are intended to control traffic in numerous developments. Developers must identify certain kinds of streets and provide traffic plans for acceleration, deceleration, and crossover management. The document now goes to Athens City Council to be approved at the second meeting in October.
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