Jail rezoning gets dropped from Chocowinity Planning Board agenda | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    The Chocowinity Planning Board met Monday (3-17-14) in its regular monthly meeting. At the February meeting possible revisions to the Town's Zoning Ordinance were discussed and the staff was to present some possible wording for such changes which would allow a jail being built at the Chocowinity Industrial Park. Under the current zone classification a jail is not a permitted use. The discussion at the last meeting centered around adopting language that would allow a jail as a special/conditional use.

    But there was nothing on the agenda about a jail at Monday night's meeting. After dispensing with routine business the Board did hear from a number of residents who were present express their feelings about putting a jail in the Industrial Park.

    You can watch the entire meeting the video clips below. The first clip is the routine meeting in which they approved a playground at the First Baptist Church. During this clip you will hear Town Planner Bryant Buck explain to those in attendance why the jail was not on the agenda. They then proceed to the agenda, after which the Board was gracious enough to hear from those in attendance. Two of those who spoke are on the first clip:



    The second clip continues the citizens' comments



    Third clip is a continuation of the second and the conclusion of the meeting:



    Of some significance you might miss in the video clips is the statement by Mr. Buck that the County has not applied for a permit or made application to change the Zoning Ordinance to allow for the construction of a new jail. It is not clear why the Planning Board would be considering changing the text of the Zoning Ordinance without an application having been filed. More on that later.

    UPDATE     Tuesday 3-18-14: Mayor Jimmy Mobley told the Observer this morning that he did not know why the Planning Board was considering changing the Zoning Ordinance to allow special use (for a jail) in the L1 zone (the classification of the Industrial Park). He said to his knowledge no application has been submitted from the County. He did say that the only conversation he had had with the County was an inquiry about whether Chocowinity had the capacity to serve the site with sewer. He indicated that the Town did have sufficient capacity but that there was no discussion about zoning.

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