The Henry County Board of Supervisors met on Tuesday, July 25th to discuss the rezoning of a part of Southeast section 7 center township from agricultural to industrial. There was a public hearing held, and Joe Buffington provided his insight as part of the Planning and Zoning commission.
The rezoning would allow a cement plant to be built in this area. There was plenty of debate between the two sides of residents, with one side arguing that there is not enough industrial infrastructure in the town of Mount Pleasant and that this is progress for the town. The other side believes that this should not even be considered, given that there are residents and homeowners in this same area.
Mitchell Taylor, an attorney representing an “undisclosed resident” believes that the original site plan failed to follow the rules of the county ordinance, as it did not provide dimensions and was different than the site plan proposed at a later date. Darin Stater, the county attorney, agreed with Joe Buffington that the site plan was correctly presented and believes that the board of supervisors could legally move forward.
As the supervisors deliberated, they discussed the potential of going “back to scratch” which entails the original site plan being republished and fixed. While there were three options brought forth, the supervisors ultimately chose to go back to scratch. It is now up to the owner to provide an improved site plan for this to move forward.
It is important to note that this is the first rezoning since moving to an electronic application, and so much of the difficulty stems from that.