www.cottageville.net

CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Yeah, but it meets all the requirements because it’s skirted, all that kind of stuff.
But, you know, you just talked about development and, you know, if somebody comes and builds a large building here more than likely they’re gonna have a construction trailer.  Like at the school, they had one there and then when the building was completed, then that trailer moved on.  So you don’t want necessarily for them to, to be a permanent structure.
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     So you’re saying it could be here up to a year?
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Up to a year.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Up to a year.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Up to a year and then —
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     And then it should be gone by then.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     If it’s not gone by then, then they’re gonna have to come back in to town council and explain why it’s still there after a year.
MAYOR WHITE:     Well, how about if we add for construction use?
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     I think that would be fine.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Manufactured home for construction use?
MAYOR WHITE:    Yeah, a manufactured home for, for construction office use.
I just don’t want somebody read that and say, well, look, you know, I’m just gonna go ahead and, you know, I’m just gonna put it in there and that’s more or less gonna be it.
For construction use.  Construction office use.
But I understand what you said because I think that one is — Is it still over at the school?
Okay.
Garage and yard sales should be limited to three consecutive days and shall be limited to three per calendar year per person and address. That’s on p 23, I’m sorry.  That’s the next paragraph.  On page 23, top paragraph.
Now, I haven’t had a chance to check this but I believe that’s a department of revenue requirement, to where you can’t have more than one a quarter.  But I will check in to that to ensure that that’s right.
This is — I believe this is one of the things that’s actually state mandated, that’s not something that the Town of Cottageville came up with.
Okay.
There again under 3 5 1, 3 5 2 and
3 5 3 where it says town administrator it’s also slash mayor.
Three point one point six, town administrator slash mayor and 3.7.1, town administrator slash mayor.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     What are we saying?  That gonna have to have a permit to get it — to have the signs?  Are you gonna have anything in there about the business about —
MAYOR WHITE:     That’s in here but it’s farther on.
Okay.  Okay.
In cases involving rezoning conspicuous notice shall be posted on the property affected with at least one such notice being visible from each public road that abuts the property.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Where are you?  Where are you?
MAYOR WHITE:     Three seven four on page 24.
And under that —
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     How about the signs?  You know the little signs that you put out?
MAYOR WHITE:     Yeah.  We’ll get to the little, little temporary signs.  We’ll get to that.
But under 3.7.4, In cases involving rezoning conspicuous notice shall be posted on the property affected with at least one such notice being visible from each public road that abuts the property.  The applicant shall be requested to pay for the cost of these notices.
And then I wanted to add see fee schedule, section 3.9.3.
Okay.
Under page 25, letter D, right at the top.  It says the town administrator slash mayor.  It’s just that same thing.
And then there’s also a map shown on that page.  This map’s added a good bit of confusion in the — not only from the residents in the town but the residents on the outside of town that think that because they see these proposed annexation marks that they feel like we’re gonna go out there and annex their property.  So I recommend that we make some changes to that map but I’ll get to those in just — after I get a little bit farther on this.
So that, you know, where the other map came in to play at.
Okay.
Below that map, paragraph 3.8.2, one copy of approved plan that contains any changes requested by the town administrator slash mayor.
And then the next paragraph it has town administrator slash mayor again.
And the next paragraph on the following page, page 26, it’s town administrator slash mayor and 3.8.3, town administrator slash mayor.
Under section 3.9, Fees, and I’d mentioned I wanted to add that thing about the schedule fees.
Zoning appeals application, $100. Rezoning application: residential, 1 50; commercial, 200.
This is that chart that we’re gonna go ahead and add in to the bottom of it.  It’s just the scheduled fees that was mentioned in the other paragraphs. So this is actually the fees.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     So you add two?
MAYOR WHITE:     Yeah.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Paragraphs?
MAYOR WHITE:     And I’ll give you a copy of this, too, so you won’t have to go through all that.
But, let’s see.
Rezoning application: residential, 1 50; commercial 200.  Application for variance is $100.  Sign permit is 25 and a tree permit is 25.
Okay.
Page 27 on 4.1.3.  Town administrator slash mayor.  And then building official slash code — Well, building slash code enforcement official.  In that same paragraph.  Or same sentence.
On page 28 we have that same change, town administrator slash mayor for 4.2.3, 4.2.4, 4.2.5 and letter B under 4.2.6.
Four point two point seven, it’s under there again, town administrator.
Four point two point eight, there’s two locations there.
Okay.
Under nonconforming use, it’s section 4.3, no changes on page 29 but what I would like to do or what I would like to recommend on page 30 is the removal of letter D which is repaired, rebuilt or altered after damage exceeded 50 percent of the replacement cost at the time of destruction, reconstruction or repair permitted must begin within six months after damage.
I may want to — I may not want to remove that whole thing.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Need to remember that nonconformance.  That’s the key word in that whole section, nonconforming uses.
And it took me awhile to understand exactly what Jenny was trying to convey to us so that I can convey it to the commission.  These are strictly nonconforming uses but we started looking to see what nonconforming uses were gonna be and you really gonna have to work to find a nonconforming use or anything that proposed changes is proposed.
Nonconforming use is the key word there.
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     And you want to be real careful about eliminating that section completely because that, that is where something that’s been grandfathered in and then a hurricane comes and smashes the building to pieces, you want it to go back up as a nonconforming thing if it’s more than 50 percent damaged?  This is just something to think about.
And like I say, I never have — I can’t give you an example of what nonconforming is.
MAYOR WHITE:     Because, you know, that’s what I have a problem with, is because if it’s a nonconforming use, then wouldn’t it be grandfathered in but if you grandfather something in . . .
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Well, it’s grandfathered in like, what?  For 10 years?
MAYOR WHITE:     Well —
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Unless it changes, it goes under this, you can’t put another one back there.  Am I not right?
MAYOR WHITE:     That’s what is supposed to happen.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Yeah, but just like she said, suppose water damage or a storm or hurricane, something blows that thing 50 percent down, are you gone let them build back?
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     The same nonconforming use.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Yeah.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Whatever that nonconforming use is.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Right.
MAYOR WHITE:     But what would — Well, do we currently have a nonconforming use?
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Well, it would be like — It would be like in a — an area made residential and before maybe it was commercial and they were allowed to have a business there —
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     No, because you’re allowed to have a business.  You’re allowed to have a business now, in this proposal, in the residential areas.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     That would be a nonconforming use.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     No, it would not.  There’s specific rules and regulations about that business, of the signs that you could put on that business but you can have a business in your home.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     But how about if it’s not in your home, like in a separate building?  You have a building on the side of your house that you use, you know, as your business.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Because out-buildings are allowed.
MAYOR WHITE:     Because we do have some nonconforming uses.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     So if it was a residential — resident and it had a business in it, it could still be in a residential area and be — Would it be nonconforming —
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     No, ma’am.  No, ma’am.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Well, what would nonconforming be, then?
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     I don’t know.  That’s what I’m saying.  We wrestled with this, too, because what is nonconforming?  Because in the commercial district, the downtown commercial you can have anything you want, residence, businesses, churches, schools, most anything under the sun, okay?
In the commercial, the highway commercial, it’s the same thing.  You can have residences but there are some very stringent rules about what you have to do.  For instance, there is a vacant lot next to my house.  If the owner of that vacant lot chose to put in something obnoxious to me, then there are very specific guidelines as to what that person has to do, provide buffers for sound, for lights, for everything, everything, and so that’s what you have to look at.
We never could get an absolute answer from Jenny about what nonconforming use is, which makes me think that it must have something to do with some of the state statutes that we are being brought in to conformity with.  Compliance.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Well, talking about like that vacant lot, say you would zone it residential, then you wouldn’t allow a juke joint to come in there —
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     But I’m saying it won’t be — My property will not be residential anymore; it’ll be highway commercial.
That is what that whole zoning thing is about, from town limit to town limit with the exception of that tiny little part of downtown commercial is all — The proposal is for it all to be highway commercial, which means you can have a business, you can have a bank.  You can have anything, anything; however, there are rules and regulations.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     For buffers and such, yeah.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Buffers and all that kind of stuff.  And, and what is allowed, too.  So there are some restrictions but it’s not nearly as restrictive as people seem to think it is.  None of it is restrictive.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Well, it may be that we don’t need to make all of 17A commercial.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Where you gonna stop it, Peggy?
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Well, that’s what I’m thinking.  Just do it down in the core, what we have now as commercial, like from the branch bridge, you know, up to 51 or, or not, not that far.  Carl Null.  Just do our center that we have in the town now.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     But that is the downtown commercial now.
What we need —
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     But then the outline that’s just commercial, is that what that is?
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Yeah, because what difference does it make whether it’s commercial or not?  The piece of property diagonal across the street from me is commercial.  The Little’s property down your way is commercial.  There is a dog grooming service, boarding service.  You gone tell me that’s not commercial?
There’s a storage complex there. You gone tell me that’s not commercial?
I look at that sun and I want to throw up.  That just screams commercial.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Tell me about it.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     That just screams and if that thing blows over we want him not to be able to put it back up again and we have tried to provide for that.
MAYOR WHITE:     But that will be — Under commercial that will be an acceptable use.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Yeah, that would be an acceptable use; however, there’re gonna be some buffers that’s gonna have to be installed.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     That’s right.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     And that sun I don’t believe meets the criteria that’s set forth in this document.  I’m not sure.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     And are we gonna have to wait three years before we can do anything about it?
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Pretty much.
MAYOR WHITE:     But, see, that sign meets —
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     That’s a long time to look at something that looks bad.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Well, it’s better than it going on forever and ever.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Right, right.
That is a prime example of what we need signs in — Every time you ride through somebody’s stuck another sign somewhere.  And that is a prime example of what we don’t want.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Well, it’s very restrictive for signs, this document is, very restrictive.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I hope so.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     If you have a business in your . . . END OF TAPE . . . what’s nonconforming.
MAYOR WHITE:     . . . clarification on —
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     On what’s nonconforming?
MAYOR WHITE:     Yeah, nonconforming.
I’ll pass on that one.  I’ll just pass on that section right now.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     If you could talk to Jenny Kozak and get, you know — I never could — She just said anything that’s nonconforming and I said, well, what is that?
It looks to me like anything goes wherever you are, whether you’re in residential or commercial.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     The reason they have this zoning is because it’s supposed to be this.  You know, you would think of residential.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     It is different.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     All you’d want in there is homes.  You wouldn’t want anything else in there.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     I know, I know.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     In residential.
But like we are, we’re so jumbled up, you know.  It’s residential and commercial and, and it’s hard to weed out all of that, you know?  Because you don’t want to hurt anybody that’s got a business in town now.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     No.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     And I know Rick is real concerned about his business.  That’s why he’s so upset about this neighborhood-commercial and all like that.  And we don’t want to do anything to hurt anybody like that.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     No, but we don’t want neighborhood-commercial, either.  We want it to be very specific —
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     That’s right.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     — as to what you’re allowed to do.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     To put in there.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:    And put in there.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I agree with you; I’m all for it.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     But it’s really not restrictive at all.  None of it is because you can have a business in your home.  You just can’t put a great big sign out front.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     And the thing that kills me about Cottageville, and I think we’re gone have to educate people coming now from somewhere and our local people, is they put the sign up there before you even know it’s there and they know.
If I was going in to a town I would go to the town hall and see what I could put up and what I couldn’t put up but they don’t.  They just come in and hammer and nail and you’ve got a sign overnight and we have got to educate people and let them know they can’t do that.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     Well, that’s what our code enforcement officer needs to do.
MAYOR WHITE:     There’s not the — There’s not the meat in that document to do it.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     And that’s why we need to put it in this one.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     But there is in this one.  It is in this one.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     That’s right.  That’s right.
CHAIRPERSON ADDISON:     It is totally in this one.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     And it ought to be in there.  If they start putting up their sign and we don’t — they don’t have a permit we can fight them and tell them we need to get down to town hall and get the information before the put it up.
I think they ought to take a picture of it and show you what it’s gonna look like and the size of it and I think we ought to be strict.
Are we strict in this?  Are we strict?
MS. CROSBY:     We are in this but not now.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Yeah, that’s what I say.
That’s what we need, is some strict regulations and we need to enforce them and once you start enforcing them the word will get out.  The word will get out.
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay.
So we’re gonna leave that alone.
Let’s move on to page 31.  All lots shall have — Under 4.5.4, All lots shall meet the minimum size requirement listed with the relevant zoning district.  And I put in there after that seven-tenths of an acre because that’s what it is right now.
Okay.
Flag lots are not permitted.  I have a problem with this one.  I don’t know.  We have existing flag lots right now in several places around town.
A flag lot is a lot subdivided in such that one lot lies behind the other one with a long, narrow strip of land providing access to the road.  We have several of those in town.
And the — I really don’t know —
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     All right.
Let’s take this.  We’ve got those in town and they’re not gonna meet the requirements of this ordinance so they’re gonna be able to stay like they are.
MAYOR WHITE:     Yeah.  There’s no
way —
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     For 10 years.  For 10 years.  They’ll be grandfathered in.
MAYOR WHITE:     Well, see, that’s —
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     And when they are, am I not right?
MAYOR WHITE:     But I mean how do you change a property line?
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     But what I’m saying is if any of those trailers, or ever what they are, are ever moved out they can’t go back like that again.  You understand?  Do you understand what I’m saying?  Once it’s grandfathered in it changes, then it’s not grandfathered any more; you have to go under the current ordinance.  Am I not right?
MAYOR WHITE:     Yeah, but I don’t know on the property line how you change a property line.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     Well, I wouldn’t worry about changing the property line; I just wouldn’t let them put two, two buildings back there again.  If they ever move them out.
And if it’s not seven-tenths of an acre they shouldn’t be in there anyway.
MAYOR WHITE:     Under 4.4.5, Easement, Drainage and Utility Easement.  This is the same.  This thing here right now is something that I’ll be actually talking to attorney about this.
But, anyway, just under letter A it’s the same thing, town administrator slash mayor.
You know, because basically what we have, the ditches right now is they’re both owned by adjacent property owners and the town doesn’t actually have any town-owned ditches.  That I see.
You know, we don’t really have an easement.
But then there’s also language in volume 45 of the state statute that says that no one can block a ditch or anything else so I mean there’s, there’s meat in that section to go ahead and get these ditches cleaned out. Even though I’ll never understand why a person doesn’t want to have a ditch cleaned out.
Okay.
On page 32, K is the same thing, town administrator slash mayor.
Thirty-three under A, under A it says town administrator slash mayor.