When is “final” final?
And can “vacation,” as in the act of vacating, ever really be done in parts?
More specifically, does a developer’s “final” plat of a subdivision have to stay in place forever? Things do change over time.
But can “final” be just a month or two, which leaves the implication that “final” would not mean much at all?
And, then, what do these definitions and questions have to do with future development patterns and practices in Putnam County?
No surprise here: it gets complicated – and somewhat hazy.
The above definitions and questions provided the backdrop for a 4-1 decision by the Putnam Planning and Zoning Commission a couple of weeks ago. (The Putnam Board of Commissioners had their go at the same definitions and questions last Tuesday night, but their meeting came after The Messenger’s deadline for getting this issue of the newspaper to the printer.)
The planning and zoning commission decision recommended denial of two local developers’ appeal of an earlier denial by Planning Director Lisa Jackson.
Lowell White Sr., who laid out most of the developers’ arguments, had over the years developed Harmony Crossing, the Harmony Medical Center and several residential subdivisions here and in other counties. He and his son Lowell Jr. had requested to change one lot in their final plat for a 15-lot subdivision near the intersection of Pea Ridge Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in southern Putnam.
The final plat was approved last summer, with lot sizes of 10-and-a-fraction acres. The property carries the zoning of AG (agricultural), with the main features including a residence, minimum lot sizes of 5 acres, and commercial uses if they are related to agriculture.
As White explained it, a potential purchaser wants to build a house facing Overlook Drive in the interior of the property. But he also wants to build a “barn-dominium” – a second residence (which would require a separate lot) on top of some commercial uses on the lot’s 400-foot frontage on MLK Drive.
White also pointed to a section of the Putnam zoning ordinance which mentions the possibility of a “vacation” of plans. County Attorney Adam
County Attorney Adam Nelson, in an audio hook-up with his Augusta office, called the situation “ambiguous,” to which White said, “I would use the term ‘arbitrary’.”
Board chairman Alan Foster, who cast the lone vote in favor of the Whites’ appeal, said that as a matter of personal philosophy, a property owner could “do with his property whatever is in his best interests as long as there is no adverse effect on neighboring owners.”
“It’s the potential for creating a loophole for developers that sort of worries me,” said board member John Mitchell. Others voting to uphold the director’s denial were Howard Jones, Martha Farley, and Maurice Hill.