Planning commission approves rezoning request for rug cleaning facility

The Shelby County Planning Commission approved the rezoning of a 1.75 acre lot off of Dunnavant Valley Road at its May 2 meeting.

The request was submitted by Kurt Gardner, an owner of Janify Company, to rezone the property from holding zone district to neighborhood business district. The property, which is located about 1.1 miles off of U.S. 280, would house an Oriental rug cleaning facility for Janify, a company that works in carpet and floor cleaning.

“With a lot of new homes, the trend seems to be people are pulling the carpet out and they’re laying the rugs down on these hardwood floors,” Gardner said. “So we see a need there, it seems like an underserved area.”

There are pre-existing structures on the property, and Gardner said they intended to use those buildings for the time being. One of the structures is a home, and Gardner said they eventually intended to tear that building down and rebuild another structure.

Staff recommended the rezoning to a neighborhood business district, but Commissioner Bob Land asked if it would be possible to rezone to a special district so that no other type of business could be opened on the property.

Gardner and his wife Laura Gardner said they were fine with being rezoned to a special district, as they had no other intentions for the property. The commission unanimously approved the rezoning from HZ to B-1 SD.

Because the property was rezoned to a special district, the commission informed the Gardners that if or when they choose to tear down one of the existing structures on the property, they will need to get planning commission approval before building another structure.

The planning commission also heard a request from David Keith of Keith Development, LLC. Keith requested to waive the one-year waiting period for a rezoning request on a property on Cahaba Valley Road. The waiting period started after the last rezoning request was denied on Aug. 3, 2015.

Senior planner Sharman Brooks said a request to waive the one-year waiting period is not something the planning commission sees often.

At the Aug. 3 meeting, Joe Ciccarello of Abbey-Greystone LLC asked to rezone from holding zone district and general business district to multi-family residential special district. The intent was to build a 379-unit apartment complex on the property, and the commission denied that request six to one.

No formal application came before the planning commission at the May 2 meeting, but Keith said they planned to request rezoning the property from holding zone and general business district to single family residential, if the waiver was granted.

“We think we have something that’s more palatable. Much, much less density, probably around 50 houses whereas that first [request] was 400-something apartments,” Keith said.

Keith said the request to waive the waiting period was a step to speed along the process of requesting rezoning and presenting their plans to the planning commission.

The commission unanimously approved the request to waive the one-year waiting period.

Also at the meeting, the planning commission discussed a staff recommendation to potentially rezone holding zone properties that were less than 10 acres and in the Dunnavant Valley area. The rezone would be to a consistent zone, Brooks said, and property owners could choose to opt out.

The rezoning would be at the cost of the county. No action was taken at the meeting, but Brooks said staff would bring more maps and data before the commission at the next meeting on May 16.