Babies and bars

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: March 13, 2009

The blogging’s been slow over the past 36 hours, I know, but I’ve been buried with several things—one of which I’m going to tell you about right now.

One of the items on my agenda yesterday was the Planning Commission meeting in Auburn. I had been told that the commission would be considering an application from a Columbus, Ga., man who wants to put a bar in the old Freewheeler building downtown.

One problem: The old Freewheeler building borders a day care on two of its four sides.

After hearing from the owner of the day care and several other people who implored them not to approve the application, I was stunned that commissioners did, by a 6-3 vote.

I was told later by someone “in the know” that the planning commission has considerably less latitude than the City Council in terms of interpreting the city’s zoning ordinance. When it comes to applications, the business “either fits (zoning ordinance and code) or it doesn’t.“

I’ve written my column for tomorrow about this issue, so you’ll hear more from me about this then. In the meantime, though, I wanted to link you to the article Opelika-Auburn News reporter Katie Stallcup wrote about the meeting. Check it out here.

Also, you can view the Planning Commission’s packet from last night’s meeting here (pdf file). The information concerning this item is found on pages 46 through 55.

Stay tuned ... there’s lots more to come on this issue.