Outdated zoning maps cause confusion for Dawson development

DAWSON – A tangled web of old zoning maps, a mismatched zoning ordinance and miscommunication over recent convenience store construction has Dawson city officials calling for an overhaul of the city’s zoning framework. 

City Attorney Tommy Coleman said Dawson has a zoning map that is about 50 years old, and the city’s zoning ordinance, originally adopted in 2001, doesn’t match the map. This caused confusion when construction for a new gas station and convenience store recently began next to the Cost Kutter Grocery on South Main Street. City leaders believed the new business violated ordinance because of inconsistent mapping. But further review of both the zoning ordinance and zoning map showed the store owners were in the right, and the spot falls under the correct C3 zoning. 

“The city needs to be remapped,” Coleman said during Dawson’s Oct. 9 council meeting. “There’s been a lot of things that have been built … contrary to what the ordinance states. We need to remap the city and put everything in the right spot.” 

Redrawing a zoning map requires the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission to come in and go block by block with city staff to draw the maps. Any changes will be an amendment to the zoning code, which will require a hearing before the city council.

“This is a duty ultimately of the city council,” Coleman said to The Dawson News. “Everybody else is just kind of opinion, advisory. The city council is going to determine where these lines are and where and what property is owned or in what category. The Planning Commission can’t do it. The Downtown Development Authority can’t do it.”

Still, Dawson’s Downtown Development Authority is trying to be a part of the process. Paul Rakel, board chairman of the DDA, approached the city council on Oct. 9, to request the city issue a moratorium on zoning approvals for the next six months as the city addresses the mapping issue. 

“If we have a problem with the map, and there are questions about zoning ordinances, the DDA is recommending that the city say ‘Let’s stop and get everything straight … then move forward,’” Rakel said. 

He said he is worried people will come in before the end of the zoning map review and develop a property according to zoning the city may want to change. Rakel said the city’s Zoning Board is in full agreement with issuing a moratorium. 

Rakel said there was a lot of opposition in the community to the new convenience store on South Main street. He said more gas stations, or stores that specialize in selling alcohol and cigarettes, aren’t needed in the area. 

“But the council couldn’t do anything to stop it because of the zoning that we have here,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of development in the last few years. Some of it’s been good. Some of it hasn’t been exactly what we wanted, and this (a moratorium) will give us a chance to get our hands around it and try to make things better.”

While the owners of this new convenience store didn’t violate zoning, they did begin digging for pumps before getting the proper permit to do so. 

“There’s a lot of ways that this wasn’t done right from the start,” Councilman John Harris, who acted as Mayor Pro Tem during the October meeting, said. “Code enforcement stopped them from going any further. If everybody else has got to do it right, they do, too.” 

Dawson residents called the dug-up parking lot an eyesore. 

Coleman said the permit violation has since been straightened out. 

Harris agreed that part of South Main Street doesn’t need another convenience store. But the city didn’t approve a moratorium. Harris said the city will address these development and zoning concerns as they arise. 

Coleman said moratoriums are legally sticky and placing one in Dawson is beyond the scope of the duties of the DDA. 

“They want to put a moratorium on convenience stores – I think that’s what they really want to do,” Coleman said. “I don’t know how you do that. I don’t think that’s within the city’s authority or any city’s authority to do so, if it’s a legal business, and it’s zoned appropriately.”

One way the city could have more control over development in specific areas, such as downtown Dawson, would be establishing a historic district and appointing members to the Historic Preservation Commission, which the city created about four months ago. 

“A historic district … usually it’s a continuous area,” Coleman said. “You can’t change the exterior of a building in a historic area that destroys the historic nature of the building. You couldn’t put a convenience store in there unless it looked like an 1850s convenience store.”

If the city is remapped, a historic district would exist on that map. Coleman said Dawson actually has a historic district mapped out now, but he isn’t sure how much it corresponds with the city’s zoning ordinance. 

Coleman said he expects the zoning remapping process to reveal a lot of properties are incorrectly placed in zoning districts, especially modular homes. However, Harris got confirmation from Coleman during the October meeting that these properties would be “grandfathered in.”