Fremont board to amend zoning
By Jack Stephens
Published in News on March 18, 2004 2:00 PM
FREMONT -- The Fremont town board will offer an amendment to its zoning ordinance so that a burned mobile home can be replaced in a zone that does not permit mobile homes.
The board agreed to hold a public hearing April 20.
"If it's destroyed and put back, it'll be better than it was," town Alderman Billy Harvey said Tuesday night.
The board has discussed the issue since August. It tried to find a solution to benefit the landowner and then went one step further to help not only residents but business owners as well.
Lassiter Barnes had asked the board for permission to replace the 40-year-old home at 505 Vance St.
The Planning Board had rejected Barnes' initial request for help, the town board asked the Planning Board to study it more, and the Planning Board made the same decision again.
Then with assistance of a community planner, retiring Town Administrator Tom Barnes got a compromise amendment that would have allowed the replacement of the home. The amendment was advertised and discussed at a public hearing in November.
Then-Alderman Sam Pierce offered a substitute amendment that would allow the replacement of both damaged mobile homes and businesses. The amendment passed. However, Neil Mallory, the town board's adviser, cautioned the group that the ordinance could be challenged in court, because what was adopted had not been advertised.
A new public hearing was supposed to be held in February. But Tom Barnes said he could not advertise it in time. So, the matter was brought up again during Tuesday night's monthly meeting in Town Hall.
Tom Barnes said that if the passed amendment were allowed to stand, then a damaged malodorous stockyard or a pool hall could be replaced if they were non-conforming uses in a zone.
Alderman W.T. Smith's motion to advertise the compromise amendment to allow replacement only of homes was passed unanimously.
CDBG change
David Harris, a community planner and consultant with R.S.M. Harris Associates in Goldsboro, said the town needs to find another recipient for a new home. A resident who was scheduled to have her home replaced has died.
Harris said there were several other candidates and he would have one selected by April 20. The new beneficiary would have to be elderly and handicapped and on a low fixed income.
The board later adopted a $400,000 budget and the Community Development Block Grant project. The budget includes $340,000 for relocation of the displaced families, $40,000 for administration and $20,000 for demolition.
The other homes scheduled for demolition are at 816 S. Goldsboro St. and 202 Pender St. in Fremont and 408 S. Chestnut St. in Mount Olive.