Planning and Zoning - Regular Meeting

zoning commission meeting. Full audio of the city of Natchez planning and zoning commission is available at the city website, cityofnatchezla.gov. The next city council meeting is July 13, 2026, right here. There are no applications that will be in the pipe for rezoning, so nothing will be on the agenda for our hires. We have a subdivision.

Chairman, I need you to speak into the mic, please.

You want me to speak louder?

Yeah, we're now picking you up.

Okay. I got a lot more volume than that. Any appeals from any... We only have two re-subdivisions on the... agenda, so those would be subject to an appeal. Anyone who is aggrieved by our decision on these resubdivisions must file an appeal addressed in writing to the Mayor's Office and the City Council within 10 days of tonight's decision. I would ask everyone that if they did not sign in to please sign in. I would ask speakers to come to the fore, to the AMBO, the podium, identify themselves and speak clearly. The procedure we'll take is we'll hear from the applicant or his designee regarding the application. Then we will hear from anybody in favor of the application. Then we will hear opposition to the application. Then the applicant or his designee will have a short rebuttal limited only to the topics brought up in opposition. Then we'll move on to discussion by Commission members and then action by the Commission. The next plan is we're going to skip next month. I'll be out of town and so will the director, and I don't think we have anything terribly pending. We're pretty far in, so we'll come back. Next meeting will be September the 8th because our first Tuesday falls the day after Labor Day, so I guess we're not doing it then. For August? For September. This is September the 8th.

We haven't decided yet how, but I think we're going to make a vote on the meeting date.

Okay. All right. So it'll be the 1st of the 8th we'll decide. Y'all just need to tell us what, if that'd be too much problem coming back from a holiday, I guess, we could take that up under office activities if that's what you want to do. Any other comments, Madam Director, that I omitted?

No. If you haven't noticed that we are having the meeting in September and not August.

Yes, I did. I indicated that both you and I will be out at that point in time. And we don't have anything terribly pressing it looks like thus far. So everybody get a break. Roll number two, roll call. John.

Charles Whitehead. Here. Isaac LaLewis. Anita Du Bois? Here. Sadie Sawyer?

Here.

Michael D. Lewis?

Here.

Walter Johnson?

Here.

Alexa Conde? Ricky McAllister? Okay.

All right. By my count, that is a 4. All right. Romanum 3, approval of the minutes from our June 2, 2026 meeting. As I previously stated, all of our All of our meeting videos and audios are now posted to the City website to watch the video. The user can subscribe to the City's YouTube channel at City of Naglish LA or visit the City's website link http://www.naglishla.gov forward slash content forward slash meetings dash videos. Commissioners have been provided Draft minutes from our prior meeting on June the 2nd. If there are no corrections, additions, or deletions, I'll entertain a motion to approve same and dispense with their reading. I so move. I'll second. Motion by Lewis, second by Dubois. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, like sign. All right. I will sign those at the end of the meeting. Roman numeral four, old business. No old business, Madam Director? No old business. All right. Roman numeral five, new business. Subsection A, the applicant is William Gregory Baker, Jr. to resubdivide the following lot, 412.8 feet fronting on the west side of Highway 1, north and west by Shamrock Park, subdivision south by Mercer and others. and lot 25 feet by 50 feet in lot A, less 0.01 acre to the highway department. The reason for future sale, bearing municipal address 340 South Drive, exhibit number one in Commissioner's packet, council person district number three. Will the applicant or his designee come forward while we get a summary or comments by the director?

Again, this is property that's owned by Mr. Greg Baker. He's wanting to subdivide the smaller half of that lot for future sale. There are several things that we need to address with this lot, being the lot size, ensuring that it is 7,200 square feet, and ensuring that there is an access to prove point to access that lot.

The current zoning on this, Madam Director, is B3. It is B3. My reading of the ordinance indicates that in 2C3D, the B3 business district setback, front yard of 25, rear yard of 25, side yard of zero, with the condition that The CBD is exempt from the front yard. Is that your understanding? Yes, sir. All right. Do we have an intended use, or this is just the future sale that's been closed to you?

Well, I've been told what they want to use it as, but I don't have anything in writing. Okay.

All right. Any comments from your 300-foot letters or others?

I did receive one statement as of this afternoon before we began our meeting.

Yes, ma'am.

Let's see. Give me a second. It's the owner of the building, Ms. Bonnie Wagner. Right. I think she owns that little building right there. She does. That fronts on a corner.

Her father and I owned it together, and I sold it to her six years ago after he died.

Well, she asked me to read her comments. into the statement, and she says, as the owner of 320 South Drive, a commercial office building that just went on the market to lease sale, I will not approve this application going forward. My building has a significant setback from Highway 1 South, and any structure built on the side lot in the application will potentially block my building from the traffic heading to Naganish from the Alexandria area. In addition, the potential traffic congestion at Chief Drive caused by egress into the lot being proposed from Highway 1 could create congestion for customers entering and leaving my building, making it less attractive to potential buyers. The location of the driveway and parking spaces needs to be understood. The land improvements required to support a business structure will be significant, and the noise and construction traffic that close to the entrance of my building would also be a concern. If there are already preliminary plans or a pocket sale of the land with details on a proposed lot to use, I would greatly appreciate it being able to see those. All of this is conveyed out of an abundance of caution, as I cannot be there in person. I cannot explain the delay of receiving the notice at my Colorado home, so I've had little time to review or discuss with Mr. Baker. I thank the committee for their consideration of my concerns. Sincerely, Bonnie Lawson Wagner.

Thank you, ma'am. All right. Please state your name for the record, sir.

William Gregory Baker, Jr. All right, Mr. Baker.

You heard the summary of your application by the director. Is there anything you need to add to this?

Well, I tried to call Ms. Wagner. She reached out to me today. I tried to call her a few times to discuss what the plans were, but I couldn't get a hold of her. I was just approached by a potential buyer who was looking to get out of a lease and own their own property and build their little business. And so that little area next to my office was available. They asked if it was available. I didn't really have any future plans for it. I wasn't sure if it was the right size to even do anything on it. I kind of started doing a little research myself, found out it had to be 72 or 7,500 square feet or something like that. And I did order a survey on it to kind of re-divide it right there at the end of my parking lot. And I believe it was close to 7,500, if not somewhere around there. 74? 74 and some change. I was trying to help the potential buyer out. I know she's been trying to get some approval from the DOTD about entrance into that spot. I don't know if she's had a success with that or not yet. I've even offered sharing a driveway because I've already got a spot to get in there. It's not that big. It could be used either way, I think. I thought about even if she couldn't fit a drive entrance right there, that she could just use mine and we just go like that. It's just right in the middle. But I mean, whatever needs to be done or whatever y'all want to do, I mean, I had a vacant lot there, just a piece of grass sitting there. All I'm doing is cutting it. Someone looked to potentially build a little salon or something right there to own their own business. And I thought, well, let me see if I can sell it. So that's really what I'm here for, just to kind of see if there's anything I can do to help, assist, or if it's even possible.

Mr. Baker, I mean, you realize with a 25-foot setback on either side...

It's not very big.

There's a four-foot building permit building area that goes probably to zero at about 50 feet.

A four-foot wide building... And that's what I was going to ask, too. Yes, sir. Because my building... is I have the 25 foot in the front, but I don't believe I have it in the back. I don't know if something else got approved.

We gave the roads a lot of weight on that end.

On that end, because it's a bigger, wider end.

Well, it's the wider end. One of the problems that we've got here is this is a – This happens when the state expropriate things. You had plenty of places on the interstate where you'd have one or two acres that are stranded on the other side of the interstate because that's just what happens when they come and take stuff. The curb cut is a concern because it has to front. What you've proposed, in my opinion, does not present a buildable lot. It may mathematically meet the minimum lot size, but a four-foot-wide building is... Well, yeah, yeah, that doesn't make any sense.

And so I was... And so I guess what I was trying to find out is if that same... than the backside of the lot, that same, I don't know what that even is. It could be done for that other part, which would give them a little bit more room to build something.

It certainly could, but we're not going to approve something that on its face, if we create a new lot that is not buildable without further actions by us, it's still out of commerce. Yeah. And so I'm not telling you we would approve it, but this needs to have built-in waivers. You know, a lot of times you can build these, you meet the minimum square footage, and then come back and decide you want to configure the building a little bit different and need a little bit of waiver. But you can... meet the minimums in the beginning. You can't meet the minimums here unless your person's going to build a four foot wide building. You know, that's just, I mean, hell, the standard door's 36 inches wide. You know, so.

I agree 100%. It wouldn't work like that.

No, so I mean, I think, you know, and I don't want you people to spend a lot of money, but they need to come up with They need to come up with a solution for the DOTD, and they need to come up with a rough idea of what they're going to do if they wanted to have a genuine consideration. Because this doesn't look like a viable – I mean, I'm doing all the talking, but this is hyper-technical, so anybody else jump in. But, I mean, I just don't – I think if we're going to help – ultimately your buyer out. We really need to know what we're doing. We can't sign up for this and give an inch and then say, oh, well, you know, I bought this now and I've got these plans and I've got to have this. And you wouldn't believe how many people that stand up there that spend five figures of money before they ever walk in and see this lady or come before us. And then they try to put the guilt trip on us that they didn't do their homework or they were betting that we would approve it.

I'm curious to know... What they plan on putting there?

A salon. So she owns a little salon right there, almost across the street. I don't know the address over there. It's her and one other person. She's leasing the place. She's been there for a while. This is from her.

And there are fishes in that little... What's that little...

I don't know. It's got the big green roof. It was for sale for a while. Someone bought it, but she was leasing. She's got a little salon in there or something. I can't remember the name of it.

I think it's the nail salon.

Yeah. A little hair and nails or something like that. But she was, her lease, her rent keeps going up. She was looking to just... you know, do better for herself and build something or buy something. She just hadn't been able to find anything to buy. And so she was looking to potentially build something, you know, for herself. And approached me about selling that lot up. I said, well, yeah, I mean, I guess. Let me look into it.

Well, Greg, I'll tell you that a salon barber shop is the most intense parking required thing that I can find in our ordinance. There are more parking spaces required for a barbershop and a salon than anything else I could see. Is that fair, Madam Director? It's one per hundred. I don't know of anything else that's like that. That's about right. One per hundred. Square feet. Oh, wow.

Yeah.

I'm not saying it's modern. Back in the days, you'd have two or three of them under the dryer while you're working on them, so it made sense.

Mm-hmm.

We're stuck until the electorate can get three councilpersons to vote to renovate this deal. We're stuck with what we're stuck with.

Yeah, yeah.

But, I mean, I would, you know. What do you think, Anita?

I agree with you.

I'm not saying foreclose it, but we just don't have enough information.

I agree. Can I ask a question?

little building because if they got something that small yeah and business started getting pretty pretty good they couldn't even expand no you know so they'd be stuck yeah because it's getting tight it's getting tight over there

And do you know that in a B3 there is no minimum site requirement?

No, I know that. There's no minimum site requirement. The 7,200 is kind of a red herring. I mean, you know, you can't get much. If you're going to do a business activity, you really can't have much less than that. But that's not – B2 has a 7,200, but B3 does not. So I meant you – but this is just – I don't see this – I mean, we need more information because the only way this thing's going to work is with waivers. It's not going to work straight up.

Any information you would need that I can provide, or is this something from a potential seller?

Well, two things. I'm not your lawyer. I'm not your consultant. She needs to answer the questions, are they going to give her a curb cut? Because if they don't give her a curb cut, you and her have got to work something out about an entrance.

And I asked her Monday, and she said she was going to reach back out to them but hadn't heard anything.

And look, it doesn't matter if we approve it. It doesn't matter. If they won't give her a carpet cut, that's the only way she's got to get in there.

Yeah, yeah.

And then she needs to come up with some rough plan on what she plans on doing salon-wise, parking-wise, all that kind of stuff.

I think she's... just about got something. I'll find out from her. That's up to her.

You know, y'all got to vote. I don't get to vote on this, but it just looks to me like I'm not saying that we approve it or don't approve it. I just don't think we've got enough information. Yeah, I understand. Well, you don't really want to table it because what we really need is a complete application. This is not something where we're waiting on some little thing to come back.

Have you sold it already? Oh, no, no, no.

We haven't done anything yet.

I haven't even got a verbal agreement because I still needed to get the lot divided. I didn't have any dimensions, all kinds of stuff. So I said, we're not going to do anything. Right now, we're just... We're just having an agreement ourselves. If we can make it work.

more investigation on on this and folks she dropped some money on yeah yeah right i mean the bottom yeah i don't want to sell it to her if she can't do anything i'm not going to do that look if we give her the waivers and she can't give the curb cut yeah she's got to come back here and do some kind of shared get us to approve a shared parking place from my perspective it looked to me like the thing to do would be to determine if you put a drive up by miss wagner's building And you might not. That may be too close. Because they don't like to do multiple curb cuts. I mean, if you look, I helped develop, before I was on this, With Tom Tuber over there past Bank of Montgomery, you've got those town homes on the river. And DOTD made us put one driveway per two and made us share them. That's the only way they would let us put it in there. So, you know, I mean, it's not unheard of for DOTD to, especially on a state highway that has a significant speed limit, to not have multiple curb cuts. Is anybody else here to speak on behalf of the application of Baker? Discussion by commission members.

I'll make a motion.

Motion by Ms. Dubois to?

I move that we deny this.

Motion by Dubois to deny. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Lewis. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, like side. All right, so that stands denied, but I think you understand. Yeah. what's going on. We just got enough. And if it needs to fail on its merits, it doesn't need to get approved incrementally and then you get up to the very end.

That makes sense. I got it. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Baker. We appreciate your time. Roman numeral five, new business, subsection B, the application by Patricia Nolley and Alexander Armador to re-subdivide the following three and a half acres, more or less, being tract A of the A.B. Nolley estate in section 132, Township 9, North Branch 7 West. Mr. A.J. Bruyere attached to entry number 111885. The reason is for future sale. Very municipal address. 2001 Texas Street. Exhibit number two in your commissioner's packet. Council person district number four. Madam Director, do you have any comments or any folks?

No. We were contacted by Denali's and someone was supposed to be here to represent their They called us at the last minute saying that they were too far away and they couldn't come in. But I told them that someone needed to be here for the application. We've been working with them on this lot for quite some time. It is a nice size lot right off of Texas Street. We've been maintaining it. We boarded up the structure. We were going to actually demo it, but they paid someone to come in and demo the structure that was on the property. Then it's been overgrown for quite some time. So I don't know. It's always something.

You know, this is right across the street from Nolly Townhomes, right out there from Nolly Point. You know, we're getting development down that way. The only thing that would concern me on this deal would be that lot number one, the topography, if they can get. We don't have sewerage out there, do we? I don't think so. It would be lot one. Lots 1, 2, and 3, the sewerage is going to have to go. Either the house is going to have to go in the front or the sewerage is going to have to go in the front. Most of the time these people want to move, build closer to the water, not closer to the road. But I understand that this might be an appropriate time to... Sir, what are you here for? Okay. All right. Well, I didn't want to give you an opportunity. I mean, you know, it might be. Time for your motion, Ms. DuBois. I don't know what else to say.

Table it.

Yeah. All we can do is assume.

Yeah.

It's okay with everybody else. I'll make the motion.

And we table it. We'll come back, right?

Yeah, motion by DuBois. Second. And second. Let's go with Johnson for a second. All in favor, table it. Table it. Let me ask this. Can we table it and ask that it be put on the next agenda in September?

We're going to table an act and put it on the next agenda.

Is that good? You accept that amendment?

We'll amend it and put it on the agenda for September. That's my motion. Are you good with that, Mr. Johnson?

That's fine. All in favor of putting this on, tabling it and putting it on the next agenda for September, be it September 1, September 8, whatever it is. All those in favor of that, say aye. Aye. All opposed, like so. All right. So. Madam Director, you tell us what you want. You want to meet the day after Labor Day or you want to meet the 8th?

That is up to you guys on what day you want to meet for September.

I mean, if it's not going to cause you all a problem, do you think, of course, we don't know what the next 38 days is going to bring because that's how many days we've got to get applications for September. Usually we don't have a big

I'm thinking we're going to have quite a few. We've had quite a few people come in, and we've told them that we won't have an August meeting, so it's being pushed back to September. It might turn out to be a nice size, but I'm not sure.

What are y'all's thoughts? Do you think y'all need more than three-quarters of one day after a long holiday to get ready?

No, I'm good with the first. I just... It's up to you guys.

What does, does anybody have any plans that puts them out, that put them to hardship? No. Well, I guess we don't really have to make a, really have to have a motion if we're going to move it off the record date. So I don't hear anybody say they want to move it to the 8th, so let's just leave it on the 1st.

Okay.

All right. Any other office activity?

No other office activities.

All right. And on our next agenda, you've got to put election of a chairman since we're all serving new terms. And we do have a new member.

You can start your campaigns now.

All right. And so, Anita, you're in the spot.

I make a motion to adjourn.

All in favor say aye. Aye.