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Saturday, November 17, 2018

Heavy agenda for Alexander City Council


The Alexander City Council will have a busy night at its next council meeting. Three action items and one item for discussion are scheduled for the Monday, November 19 meeting.

In the action category council members will be asked to approve a resolution amending the 2018 budget, approve the “Purchase of property next to Alexander Central Fire Station” and a rezoning ordinance. The only item labeled for discussion is, “Hourly to salary wages.”

One item on the agenda, that won’t be needed, concerns a proposed ordinance that was expected to be recommended by the city’s planning commission for council approval. At a special meeting held last Thursday (November 15) the planning commission discussed how to handle a building permit request by Hale Steel.

The company, known for its metal buildings, is ready to construct its permanent corporate offices at the southeast corner of E. Azalea and South Alexander Road. The question is whether the property was ever legally zoned commercial.

In 2013 the city council, at that time, was presented with a request by the company to zone the back half “Industrial” and the front half “Commercial.” Planning commission member Juanita Wilson, who was on the council at the time and who is a member of the current city council, remembers voting to approve the request. However, as best as can be determined, that approval was never followed up with a zoning hearing or ordinance. And, as yet, the minutes of that meeting have yet to uncovered.

In order to temporarily solve zoning issues in south Alexander, until a new zoning map can be drawn and approved, planning commission members, at the Thursday night special meeting, considered recommending the council approve an all-inclusive ordinance that would have zoned all of what was Woodland Hills based on the designs of its developer Charley Martin. That idea was scrapped in lieu of recognition of the 2013 vote as legitimate. Council members now will only be asked to approve the building plans and give the mayor permission to sign-off on the building permit.

The main purpose of the planning commission’s special meeting was as a follow-up to a rezoning hearing held that night. Commission members agreed to recommend the city council approve a one-acre lot, surrounded by E. 1st Street, A.C. Wallace Street and E. 2nd Street be rezoned from R-1 Single-Family to R-2 Multi-Family. Construction on the 14, two-bedroom apartments is expected to begin in January. The rezoning ordinance is listed above. (See article below for further information.)

The monthly meeting of the Alexander City Council will be held Monday, November 15, 6 PM, in the courtroom in city hall. The public is encouraged to attend.

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