Wednesday, March 26, 2003
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Wednesday, March 26, 2003 |
Tyrone Town Council doesn't want to weaken zoning ordinances, denies requestsBy MICHAEL
BOYLAN
The Tyrone Town Council sided with the Tyrone Planning Commission Thursday night in deciding to not allow special exceptions to zoning ordinances. Thursday night's meeting featured two applicants seeking text amendments or special exceptions to current zoning ordinances. Joel Ogletree wanted to move the Doris Russell School of Dance to a building that had Office/Industrial zoning, while another applicant wanted to have a climate-controlled storage facility in M-1 zoning. Currently, climate controlled storage facilities are only allowed under M-2 zoning. That applicant did not attend the meeting and the council denied the request quickly. "If the applicant doesn't feel this matter is important enough for him to be here, I recommend denial," said Councilman Paul Letourneau. David Nebergall represented the Planning Commission at the meeting and expressed the commission's concern for setting a precedent. Town Manager Barry Amos agreed, stating that a special exception would weaken the zoning ordinance. Ogletree's request was looked upon more favorably by the council, but they did not want to establish what could be a dangerous precedent. Currently, dance schools are only allowed in commercial zoning and Ogletree wanted to move the school to his East Village complex, which houses offices for doctors and dentists. There are no other dance schools in Tyrone, and Ogletree stated that it should be looked upon as more of a recreational endeavor than a commercial one. The students are all girls ages 3-18 and the classes typically don't start until 4 p.m., just as the business day is winding down. In Amos' comments to council, he stated that the Planning Commission is currently discussing the table of uses for the current zoning ordinances, meaning that this issue may work itself out and dance schools may find themselves under a different zoning category. Ogletree gave a passionate plea for the dance school, but the council suggested he withdraw his request so that should the new uses not resolve this matter, he would be able to come before the council again with this request.
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