Editor’s Note: Part of this letter was inadvertantly left out of the April 7 edition of the Fairhope Courier. The edited letter is reprinted in full today.

Editor:

This is a letter concerning the April 13 zoning vote on District 14.

I have lived in Baldwin County for over 50 years, graduated from Fairhope High School and Alabama State University. I was a member of the team that defeated zoning in District 17.

Readers of this letter should read Baldwin County Zoning regulations on zoning. There is a zoning regulation that states that in a residential zone district, conforming lots must be a minimum size of 80,000 square feet for single-family dwelling or divide into property lots of 40,000 square feet. If the lot sizes are smaller, they are nonconforming and will be grandfathered until the dwelling is damaged by more than 50 percent. The damage can be from fire, flood, hurricane, etc. Then, the damaged dwelling must conform to the Baldwin County Zoning regulations before a building permit can be obtained. Property owners will have to go before the Baldwin County Property & Zoning board for approval on their building plans with additional fees being paid and government oversight.

When an area becomes a zoned district, some structures will be classified as nonconforming because of lot sizes, setbacks and land use. The pro-zoning groups are campaigning that they can stop unwanted businesses, dirt pits and government operations in a zoned district. Please read the Baldwin County zoning regulations about permissible uses.

This is a group that did not collect the required 10 percent of electors in District 14 for a zoning election. They said the Baldwin County planning & zoning office had given them the wrong numbers of electors to be collected on the petition. The Baldwin County Judge of Probate and Board of Registrars are tasked with the responsibility of elections and voter registration, not the planning and zoning office. These groups asked permission from four county commissioners with three voting to bypass the petition process and disavow the required 10 percent of the electors in a district to call a zoning election. The Judge of Probate of Baldwin County denied the petition on these facts and the Commissioners proceeded to bypass the 10 percent requirement. This process occurred in District 17. They did not have 10 percent of the electors from District 14 and the County Commission call for an election.

This is a zoning concept that gives a small group of people power to zone their property and extend their zoning to other properties one mile past their community heritage zone boundary. The local legislative delegation has vetoed this measure because of the fairness issue.

In District 17, we voted down zoning June 20, 2006 with a vote of 583 “no” and 128 “yes.” Please read the Baldwin County zoning regulations and make your choice on April 13.

Point Clear