An amendment to city zoning ordinances will be discussed at a public hearing at the Starkville Board of Aldermen meeting Oct. 16. Concern began after the Green Oaks Homeowners Association noticed an error in zoning ordinance and told the board that the definition of family was incorrect. Association President Leland Fager expressed his feeling that the zoning ordinance says things that are not followed.
“They’re not worth the paper they’re written on,” Fager said. “If we’re gonna have ordinances, why not enforce them? If you don’t enforce regulations, you invite anarchy.”
Green Oaks is zoned R-1, which is designated as strictly single family.
A lot of complaints have to do with numbers, Alderwoman Marie Lee said.
“We’re not opposed to students or rental properties,” Lee said, “but multiple roommates and friends would generate too much parking.”
Cities protect those who have invested in a home expecting certain types of neighbors through zoning codes.
There have been several subdivisions to question about R-1 homes that students occupy, Lee added.
Some R-1 subdivisions are Timber Cove, LongMeadow, Colonial Hills, Sherwood Forest, Green Oaks and Glendale, which are traditionally one lot per family, city planner Larry Jones said.
The ordinance as it stands allows unrelated people to live in R-1, the most restrictive zone.
“If we had the definition of family, we could handle this,” Lee said. “We would know full well that related families were in the homes.”
In the 1991-04 zoning ordinance, family is defined as one or more persons occupying a dwelling unit and living in a single nonprofit housekeeping unit: provided that four or less persons who are not within the second degree of kinship shall constitute a family, except in platted subdivisions and designated historic districts, regardless of zoning, where a family shall (also) be defined as three or less persons living as a single nonprofit housekeeping unit when said persons are unrelated by blood or marriage within the second degree.
so) is the amendment to the definition. The notice of public hearing invites all to share comments on the proposed issue.
The board has never implemented the definition Larry Jones said. “We need a definition and a policy to implement.
Keith Coble spoke for the Glendale subdivision at the October 18 board meeting.
“No one can guarantee us that his will not become an area of college students,” Coble said.
Coble, an associate professor of agricultural economics at Mississippi State University, determined that the zoning laws would let him buy rental property anywhere in town and rent it to anybody he wants.
The final plat for the completion of the development project at Glendale subdivision was approved 6-1.
“The plat approval was a vehicle to discuss valid issues, but not germane,” Jones said.
Whether a plot of land can be divided was irrelevant to the Glendale subdivision debate and was getting into issues that are way beyond the ordinance Jones added.
“We have no control over housing design, or square footage, or number of bedrooms or bathrooms or color or architectural style,” Jones said.
Lee said if the board could clarify the definition of single family, we could satisfy single family requirements for future developments.
“It needs to be written so people can understand what it says and that it can only be interpreted one way,” Lee said.
She has researched about 20 other land grand university towns where more understandable ordinances are no more or less restrictive. The definitions of family within city ordinance vary from town to town.
“Some are worse, but some are pretty understandable,” Lee said.
Lee said too many subdivisions have vacated homes being bought and used for rental properties.
“If we revised the definition, then we would have control over it being a single family,” Lee said.
A single-family dwelling must have a single electric meter, single stub to the water and sewer, and single kitchen Jones said. “As far as the types or relationships of people that live within the structure, we have no control and do not govern that.”
“My biggest concern is we’re going to lose quality faculty and other families who want to live here,” Lee said. “We won’t be able to attract single families.”
The Green Oaks Homeowners Association stance is “We want this to be a family neighborhood,” Fager said.
The association was revitalized a year ago after being defunct a good number of years “We put it back on its feet,” said Fager.
The association lobbied for Stark Road access to be eliminated for their streets and now more people are walking and traffic is down. “We would like to get back to Green Oaks neighborhood,” Fager said.
He calls this is a challenge to enforcement of ordinance.
“Let’s get back to rational thinking on zoning,” Fager said.