The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Monday voted 4-0 to deny a request from Jose Luis Rangel to rezone from transitional residential to high-density residential 0.61 of an acre at 119/123 Dublin Way, which is just off Foster Road.
Board Chairman Jevin Jensen typically votes only if there is a tie.
The property currently has one duplex. Rangel wants to add a second and needed the rezoning to do so.
Residents of the Dug Gap Road area packed the courthouse meeting room to overflowing for the June meeting of the Dalton-Varnell-Whitfield County Planning Commission to oppose the proposed rezoning. The planning commission makes recommendations to the city councils of Dalton and Varnell and to the county commissioners on zoning matters. The planning commission members unanimously recommended denying the rezoning request.
Ethan Calhoun, a planner for the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission who handles planning and zoning staff work for the county commission, said during the public hearing that the proposed rezoning would conflict with the long-range plan for the area, which calls for it to be a suburban neighborhood with detached, single-family homes.
Calhoun said the property and an adjacent property also owned by Rangel is an island of transitional residential zoning.
“When we look at the rest of the zoning map throughout this area we see almost entirely low-density, single-family residential zoning,” he said.
He said the current zoning allows a quadplex.
“It would be the same number of units (as the owner wishes to build), but it would have to be a single structure, not two separate, detached structures,” he said.
Manny Meza, the property manager, said if the rezoning was denied the owner would probably try to turn the existing building into a quadplex.
Calhoun said it isn’t clear the property could support either a second duplex or expanding the current building into a quadplex, citing factors such as a flood zone that affect the property.
Calhoun said based on all the factors, the staff recommendation was to deny the rezoning, and the planning commission followed suit with the unanimous recommendation.
The commissioners also voted 4-0 to deny a request by Mark Souther to rezone from suburban agriculture to rural residential 3.6 acres at 2248 and 2250 Brown Road in Dalton.
The commissioners voted 4-0 to approve:
— A request by Leslie Araceli Ramirez to rezone from low-density, single-family residential to rural residential 1.25 acres at 205 Richardson Drive in Dalton. The property has both a single-family detached home and a manufactured home on it, which was not in conformity with the previous zoning. The rezoning brings it into conformity.
— A request by Mandy Blankenship to rezone from general commercial to low-density, single-family residential 0.61 of an acre at 614 Foster Road in Dalton. The property has a single-family home on it, and the rezoning brings it into conformity.
— A request by Bryan Spence to rezone from high-density residential conditional to transitional residential 2.62 acres at Brooker Drive and Dawnville Road in Dalton to develop duplexes and single-family homes.
— A request by Elizabeth Medina and Jose Antonio Melendez to rezone from rural residential to suburban agriculture 5.02 acres on Lower Dawnville Road in Dalton to build an accessory structure.
— A request by Robert Anderson to rezone from general agriculture to rural residential five acres on Tunnel Hill-Varnell Road in Tunnel Hill to build a house.