AMRPC STAFF REPORT 07 03 2023
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1 STAFF REPORT ATHENS MUNICIPAL-REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION July 3, 2023 12:00 P.M. CONFERENCE ROOM NEW BUSINESS 1. Public Comments and Recommendation on rezoning request by Tracy and Wanda Dennis to change parcel identified as Tax Map 065D Group A Parcel 024.00 located on 708 Virginia Avenue from B-1 Local Business District to R-2 Medium Density Residential District containing approximately 0.33 acres. The landowners are requesting a zoning change so that they can sell the house. Currently the house is grandfathered in under the B-1 District. It can be used as a home and even transferred under State Law as long as the use does not cease for a continuous period of 30 months. The issue is that if it destroyed beyond 51% of its value , it cannot be rebuilt in the B-1 zone. I received a call from Bob Cantley at Tennessee Valley Appraisal Services on Friday June 16th, asking about the zoning designation and if it could be rebuilt. I told him under the B-1 it could not be rebuilt as a single-family home if it was destroyed beyond 51% of its appraised value. On Tuesday June 20th, I received the email below to call Wanda Dennis: Wanda Dennis called about 708 Virginia Avenue. They have a contract on their house and just found out that it is not zoned residential. It is zoned B-1. She wants to know if it can be rezoned to residential. The title company found it when they were doing the title search. They are supposed to close on June 30. They lived there 28 years and did not know it was zoned residential. Please call her at ….. I did call her and discuss the matter and told her what I had also told Mr. Cantley, and I told her the process to rezone the property. I told her that is had been rezoned from B-3 Central Business to B-1 Local Business in 2012 during a city-wide rezoning and adoption of new color parcel- based map in accordance with State Law. She informed me that they had gotten the zoning changed to residential sometime between 1993 and 1995. She said it had a beauty shop on it when they purchased it. I search all the ordinances passed by the city council from 1/17/1989 and 2/18/2003 and did not find any rezonings for this property nor any rezonings on Virginia Avenue either. I sent the following email to her instructing her of my findings and to answer her email question about a variance for the use: