City considers new rezoning ordinances

By Angie Thompson/senior reporter

TIFTON — If the Tifton City Council approves the idea of adopting new zoning and annexation ordinances, the time it takes people who are making such requests to have the council’s decision could be a month shorter.

City attorney Greg Sowell told council members during workshop session Monday that he had had several conversations with various council members who had suggested making the change.

“The change would have two benefits,” Sowell said. “It removes an extra month of waiting before the final go-ahead on rezoning and it puts the city’s process in line with the county’s.”

Requests for zoning changes and request for annexation first go through the city’s planning staff. Then, the request goes to the Planning and Zoning Commission. P&Z; meets, looks over the request and then makes an official recommendation to the council. Then, the issue is placed on the city’s workshop agenda for first reading. At the next regular city council meeting, a second reading of the issue is held along with a public hearing and council members either honor the request, deny it or table it until the next monthly meeting.

“Currently, it takes a person who wants to re-zone a minimum of three months,” Sowell said. “Some of the council members thought that might not be necessary.”

Sowell said that council members should be able to study, review and decide such issues at first reading and the council would still be able to table an issue if they believed they needed more time to make a decision.

Sowell said local governments are in the process of developing a unified land code and are also sharing staff members who deal with land use issues.

Sowell said the city decided in 1998, when it was given a new charter by the Georgia General Assembly, to keep the amendment in the old charter that required an ordinance to be read, or voted on.

“At that time, we wanted to make sure we were doing the right thing because land use and zoning are so permanent,” Sowell said.

Since 1999, all ordinances the city considers, except for zoning and annexation issues, require only one reading.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.

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