SELMA – In a divided vote, the Selma Town Council has rejected a rezoning request. Clifton Ray Moore of Selma had petitioned the town to rezone 12.57 acres in the 1300 block of N. Webb Street from Residential and General Business classifications to Transitional Residential, which is a typical zoning for mixed use development.
Transitional Residential would also allow for the placement of multi-family apartments. The property is in close proximity to a public school and church.
The Town Council previously rejected the rezoning request but due to a technicality the rezoning case was reheard by the board at their February meeting.
The board once again rejected the rezoning petition, with Councilman William Overby casting the only vote in favor of the request.
Good. Selma has too many low income and multi family apartments already.
Yes it does and some of the nicer neighborhoods especially West Selma have some homes that need to be condemned for they look like they belong in a slum.
what does their land use map say?
The TR rezoning was something that was questionable but became common practice in the three years I just served on the Planning Board. Our Planning Director typically would get such parcels up for the TR designation rather than R8. The TR does allow mixed use and was typically meant for allowing a small business to go into an old house in a residential neighborhood. It was also being used to allow for a business development to have apartments over them such was was being proposed for the Eastfield project. It always seemed odd that a TR designation was the preferred method, but that is how it was constantly being brought to the Planning Board by that (now gone) director. And several multi-family projects were rezoned as TR over the past few years.
In speaking with our Mayor, I learned that some of these Board recommendations were never brought to the Town Council for action, which I find odd, and since they are proceeding, it means that they would have to be at least an R8 designation for development as I understand it.
Part of the property in question was already R8 and part GB. The TR designation would be consistent with adjacent parcels that were made TR consistent with the game plan as laid out by the prior Director. Unfortunately, this inconsistency has made it very confusing for property owners, developers, Planning Board members, the public.
The NIMBYs are strong in Selma. #VoteOutIncumbents
Selma is my hometown and it is improving in alot of ways especially downtown but it needs some nice new housing developments desperately instead of multi family or government housing. If you ride through the different neighborhoods in town some of the homes look like you are in the slums.