Town BZA denies sign variance

MOORESVILLE — It was a long night for members of the Mooresville Board of Zoning Appeals and Mooresville Plan Commission. Combined, both groups met for more than three hours and they continued two items until next month.

First, the town’s BZA heard a request from Morgan County Libertarian Party Chairman Danny Lundy for a variance from the town’s sign ordinance that prohibits all signs, including political, from the town’s right of way.

Republican Party Chairman Daniel Elliott was also on the agenda to speak, but due to miscommunication on the time, he did not show up until 6:30 p.m. which was after the discussion on signs.

At issue is the section in the town’s ordinance that prohibits all signs from being placed in the space between the curb and sidewalk, space that is normally considered a public right-of-way.

While in some cases the homeowner does not “own” the area between the curb and sidewalk, they must keep it maintained.

Lundy asked the board to consider granting a variance allowing the placement of political signs in the area.

There was discussion on weather the BZA was the proper agency to hear the request or if the board could hear it because no formal request for the variance had been filed.

The board’s attorney, who was a substitute for the board’s regular attorney, said it could hear the request. She gave a brief history of the ordinance regulating signs.

Basically, the town passed the ordinance in 2018 and it took effect Jan. 1 of 2019.

Lundy said the town began enforcing it in 2020. He felt the ordinance was being selectively enforced by the town.

Town council president Shane Williams said he was told in 2019 he had to remove his signs from the right-of-way.

After discussing the matter at length, the board decided to deny the request. Members felt the ordinance should be reviewed at a later date and possibly be changed after the review.

Storage units cause anger

A request by MS Holdings LLC for three variances for the construction of storage units at 451 E. County Line Road resulted in a group of angry residents who told the board they did not want the project.

Local engineer Ross Holloway represented the company during the meeting.

Holloway said the property is currently zoned Industrial-2 which he said does allow for the construction of storage units. It also allows some industrial uses that would not be compatible with the neighborhood he said.

He said the company wants to rezone the land to Business-3 which is more restrictive in what can be placed on the property. He said the company was going to ask the plan commission, which met after the BZA meeting, to give a favorable recommendation for the rezoning.

Holloway noted if the company did not get the rezoning, it would not need the variances. Holloway said the company wanted to be good neighbors with the residents in the area.

Several neighbors spoke about the request and all were in opposition.

Their reasons included:

• The project would destroy property values.
• The land is zoned agricultural, not industrial.
• The concerns about drainage.
• The project would take away an area used by wildlife.
• The “fence” some residents shared with the property would be removed.
• The units would bring crime to the area.
• The neighbors did not want to look at the back of the buildings.
• The project would bring more traffic to the area.

Holloway assured the neighbors the property is zoned for industrial use, not for agriculture.

He said the company would have to meet the town’s drainage ordinance requirements and not allow their water to run off the property.

Holloway added the company would leave the existing fences in place, and according to the Mooresville Police Department, there is very little crime reported around storage units in the area.

He reminded both the board and the neighbors that under the industrial zoning, they could go ahead and place the storage units on the property, the company just has to get approval from the drainage board and meet the requirements of the industrial zoning section.

After nearly an hour of discussion, the board voted to table the matter until next month to allow Holloway to give them more information.

Plan Commission

A request to replat and rezone land near the intersection of Northeast Street and Indianapolis Road brought anger from a resident who did not want to see a multi-family apartment constructed on the land.

According to John Larrison, from Holloway Engineering and Surveying, the property is completely useless as it sits now. It consists of two small lots, each one too small to build on.

The owner wants, Larrison said, to combine the two lots into one lot, then rezone it to Residential-3 to allow construction of a three unit apartment on it.

One person expressed opposition to the rezone request. He did not want the board to allow a multi-family rental unit in an area that had single family homes.

He cited the city of Martinsville which, he said, had around 47 to 48 percent rental properties. He said Mooresville is currently around 33 to 35 percent rentals.

He said many of those apartments have low income families who can bring problems to the area.

After much discussion, commission members approved the replat but it decided to send the rezone request to the town council with no recommendation.

A request to replat several lots on Arrival Parkway in North Madison Crossing brought an angry resident to the meeting.

At issue is a request to combine two lots, one that is too small to build on, into one lot. The resident said the commission was making changes that will affect the homeowner’s association effort to collect fees from property owners. He asked if the new owner would pay two fees because he has two lots or will he pay one fee for both lots.

There was some discussion about past commission actions that may have had an effect on the subdivision.

He was told the commission does not enforce homeowner association rules and regulations.

The commission approved the replatting.

The next scheduled meetings for both the Mooresville BZA is at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10 with the plan commission meeting taking place after.

Both meetings will take place at the Mooresville Government Center, 4 E. Harrison St.

~ By Keith Rhoades | Reporter | Published August 14, 2020 in The Mooresville Times