A public hearing was conducted at a Thursday night work session that led to the approval of a rezoning ordinance for the new downtown overlay district and the approval of proposed rezoning of property owned by Downey Trees, Inc.

The first item discussed was the rezoning in the downtown overlay district, which was adopted by Mayor Linda Blechinger and Council at a previous meeting.

"Now we need to address rezoning [to insure that] potential conflicts with the overlay permitted uses are avoided," said Larry Lucas, City Planner for Auburn. "The future land-use plan anticipated some residential uses we must first address the land-use plan and how that is going to be influenced by the overlay rezoning."

There are currently a number of parcels zoned commercial while others need to be designated for commercial use, mostly on the north side of Third Avenue and Mary Carter Road.

The current mix of zonings presents potential conflicts with the recently adopted overlay ordinance. One instance is the vacant parcel located between the old and new police stations. That parcel is zoned R-MD (Residential Multi-Family Duplex).

Properties within the overlay are proposed C-2 (General Business District), but C-2 does not permit residential uses.

"However," said Lucas. "The overlay district will take precedence over the underlying zoning to permit attached housing and residential uses over commercial."

The proposal presented to mayor and Council was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission to redesignate the parcels in question to a commercial designation. Certain parcels were to stay the same, such as Auburn Elementary School and Burel Park.

"The bulk of the properties in downtown are zoned for single-family residential," Lucas explained. "The R-100s the R-MDs ... those zoning classifications are inconsistent with the direction and the objective of the overlay district, which is to develop a mixed-use and commercial character in downtown," he said. "So the proposed rezoning is to redesignate all of these properties from the various zonings that are not C-2."

There are certain uses in C-2 that are inconsistent with the aesthetics for the city, so the approved rezoning was conditional C-2-Conditional or C-2-C.

Automotive sales supplies, tune-up shops, muffler and break shops, body repair shops, heavy equipment and farm equipment sales, mobile homes, taxidermist, contractors offices, residential and community shelters, mini warehouses, electrical and plumbing contractor offices and business colleges are all on the list of stores that will be prohibited in the downtown overlay.

Notification of the public hearing was sent by mail to 93 parcels affected by the rezoning. No citizens at the meeting commented either for or against the rezoning.

Sally Brown of the Council inquired about business schools being prohibited and Lucas explained that business schools tend to use large tracts of land.

"We feel that there are parcels on the outlying parts of town or on larger tracts that would be more appropriate for a business school," he explained.

The condition set for business schools does not prohibit other locations, such as Auburn Elementary School, from allowing classes to be held the already existing building.

The S&T property rezoning proposal was also presented to Council at the meeting and was approved. Downey Trees, Inc., plans to use the property as a center that will grind trees and other brush into compost and mulch for landscaping and other organic applications. The company will not be accepting any kind of processed wood such as lumber of furniture.

"There were some concerns that came up about their site plan after the Planning and Zoning Commission [reviewed it]," Lucas said. "Because they proposed constructing four concrete bins where they actually will store the various materials ... but the surrounding road where the trucks navigate around those bins was proposed to be gravel."

Paul Bagley, president of Downey Trees, said that the road will be concrete which is in accordance with Auburn’s zoning ordinance.

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation was to approve the proposed rezoning from AG (Agricultural) to M-1 (Light Manufacturing), with the condition that should the development not take place or another type of development is proposed that the property would revert back to AG zoning.

Council unanimously approved the proposal.