Base zoning on commissioners' agenda
By Matt Shaw
Published in News on April 5, 2004 1:58 PM
The Wayne County commissioners will talk again Tuesday about zoning for thousands of additional acres in high-noise areas around the Air Force base.
The board will also consider a ban on smoking around the entrances to the County Office Building, home to the Social Services and Health departments.
The county will hold a dedication ceremony at 1:30 p.m. for the Borden Building, now home to the Wayne County offices of Eastpointe mental health services. The conference room will be dedicated in honor of the late Bill Condron, former director of the Wayne County Mental Health Center, which is now part of Eastpointe.
The commissioners have scheduled another work session on the Planning Board's recommendations for expanded zoning along Seymour Johnson's flight lines.
Currently, the county has zoning for nearly 22 square miles around the base where the noise level typically is 65 decibels or more above normal. The Planning Board has asked that zoning go another half-mile out, which would make the total zoned area around 31 square miles.
The Planning Board also called for all the county land around the flight lines to be placed in an "airport overlay district," which would further restrict development. Residences would be banned in some areas, while noise-dampening materials would be required in others.
Smoking ban
Also Tuesday, the commissioners will consider a request by the Board of Health to prohibit smoking at three entrances to the County Office Building, the former hospital on Ash Street.
Health Director James Roosen says his department wants to reduce the exposure of non-smokers to other people's tobacco smoke, which has been declared a Class A carcinogen by the EPA.
The Health Board wants to post the entrances on Herman, Lionel and Simmons streets as "non-smoking areas." A smoking area would be designated next to an out building used by the building and grounds crew.
Also Tuesday, the commissioners are scheduled to do the following:
*Hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. on Gateway's application for state funding.
*Discuss a possible increase in funding for the Wayne County Teacher Scholarship Program to cover increasing college costs.
*Receive the annual reports of the committees that monitor adult care homes and nursing homes.
The commissioners will convene at 8 a.m. for a briefing on the agenda. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the commissioners' meeting room, third floor, Wayne County Courthouse Annex, 224 E. Walnut St.