New land use plan sent to Perry council

PERRY — A new land use plan is on its way to City Council in April after adoption by the Perry Planning Commission on Monday.

Following three public hearings and tinkering by planning officials, the proposed land use plan is notable for leaving Swift Street as residential, adding greenspace zoning at two spots along Houston Lake Road and expanding a commercial zone along Houston Lake Road as it runs to North Perry Parkway at the city’s northeast side.

“I think the process has gone very well,” said Mike Beecham, Perry’s director of community development. “We’ve had good feedback all along the way, and there were 20 to 25 people at the meeting Monday. Only one person disagreed with that version of the plan and suggested a change.”

Beecham said the change was a minor one and that the planning commission agreed to it.

It assigns a second greenspace along Houston Lake Road from the Houston County Board of Education’s bus depot east to North Davis Drive.

The plan already set aside an area on Houston Lake Road near James Street as greenspace suitable to be left natural or developed as a park. That piece of land is adjacent to an existing park, James Street Park, to its south.

The proposed plan goes to City Council for its regular April 6 meeting.

Residents along the Swift Street-Houston Lake Road corridor were sent invitations asking for input during two previous hearings, and about 180 invitations were sent out for the hearing during Monday’s planning commission meeting. Beecham said there is still time to look at the plan at his office at City Hall prior to the April council meeting.

Beecham said the new land use plan will replace one that was adopted in 2007. He said the only difference between the two plans was the change to land use along the route from Swift Street near downtown to Houston Lake Road as it comes to North Perry Parkway.

He said the plan does not itself change zoning, but does affect how zoning officials view zoning requests made by individual property owners.

A request that fits the city’s plan, he said, is more likely to gain approval.

Beecham said despite recent attention given to re-zoning issues in the city, there have not been any requests for zoning changes from property owners.

“There hasn’t been much activity in that area,” he said. “It’s good to look ahead like this and plan when you’re not under the gun to make big changes. We get to look ahead and see what we need to do and what people think and develop a good plan.” Much of the initial public discussion about the new land use plan involved a rumor that Swift Street, now three lanes, was to be widened. Beecham said no such plan ever existed. He did say the state is planning to widen the section of Houston Lake Road running from Swift Street to its intersection with North Perry Parkway from two lanes to three, but no date has been set for that work