Madison County commissioners turned down a Lem Edwards rezoning request May 7.
Grady and Rebecca Poole applied to rezone their 7.18-acre parcel from A-2 to R-R for a home site for their children. Two neighbors spoke against the proposal, saying that everyone in the neighborhood has houses on five acres or more and that the Pooles should have understood that there aren’t supposed to be homes on smaller lots in the area.
“I don’t want three residences on seven acres across the road from us,” said Judy McCarty.
Grady Poole said that when he and his wife purchased the property, they agreed to a contract stating there would be no single-wide trailers and no multi-family units on the property.
Commissioner Jim Escoe made the motion to deny the request.
“It seems like everything in the area is meant to be single family on five acres or more,” he said.
Escoe, John Pethel and Theresa Bettis voted against the rezoning. Lee Allen and Tripp Strickland voted for it.
In other zoning matters, the board approved a request by Chris Jones of Calwood Properties to rezone 11.22 acres from A-1 to R-1 for a total of four lots. Jones previously received approval for 15-lot subdivision on adjoining property. The 11-acre portion is served by a private-access drive with a maximum of allowance of four lots under county guidelines.
The board also approved a request by Bruce Robinson to rezone 12.61 acres on Piedmont Road from A-2 to R-1 to subdivide into four lots. The commissioners approved two requests by the Janet Crowe estate: one to rezone up to one acre on a 24.56 acre parcel on Hwy. 29 from A-2 to B; and a second request to rezone five acres on Jones Chapel Road from B to A-2.
In other matters Monday, commission chairman John Scarborough recognized EMS paramedic and training coordinator Rebecca Smith, who recently received the John E. Steed Memorial Region 10 EMT of the Year Award.
The board agreed to allocate $5,000 in funds already budgeted to the district attorney’s office for a new position, which fell through due to a lack of funding from another county in the district, to a pay raise for assistant district attorney Geoffrey Fogus, who had received another job offer. District attorney Parks White has praised the work of Fogus and sought a raise to keep him on staff. White has talked to the board about the low pay for assistant DAs in the circuit, which doesn’t pay as much as other circuits in the state, noting that high turnover in the office hurts prosecutions.
