Burris Foods request for Comprehensive Plan and zoning change approved

The lands outlined in red are now rezoned to I1 after city council approved a request from Burris Foods

At a recent meeting, a request from Burris Foods to change the Comprehensive Plan as well as to rezone a portion of their property from R1 to I1. According to Rob Pierce, City Planner, the change was mostly just housekeeping as the parcel in question had been used for some time by Burris for industrial storage. Before the presentation for the two requests, Councilman Jason James recused himself as he is an employee of Burris Foods.

“To the best of my knowledge and based on as much information as I can get from old aerial photographs, this property has been utilized as a fenced in industrial storage area since at least 1992. This piece of land also shares land with some of the baseball and softball field complex that’s owned by Burris Foods that they allow the Little League to utilize,” Pierce said. “So, this comprehensive plan change would allow the industrial use to remain and be separated from that recreational use. The applicant does propose to recall a lot line adjustment plan that would move the line to encompass this fenced in area with that industrial building to the east. So, it’s, in my opinion, a little bit of a mapping cleanup issue here. There’s an existing garage, concrete pad, some storage containers and fenced in yard that’s associated with the building to the east.”

Cliff Mumford, an engineer with Davis, Bowen & Friedel, explained that Burris Foods planned to construct a storage building on the property.

“So, this came about because they’re looking to build a storage building on the back of the property. And that’s when they realized that it’s not a part of the parcel, that they’re not zoned the same,” Mumford said. “So, we started with getting a topography survey and boundary survey done and advised them that they needed to get it rezoned, and then after the rezoning is complete, we’ll do a lot line adjustment and bring that into the parcel on there, so this is the first step in that process going through and cleaning up the zoning and the comprehensive plan.”

Councilman Dan Marabello asked if the property in question was fenced. Mumford replied that a portion of it was. Councilman Andy Fulton questioned whether this change would impact Little League as Burris Foods had done a great service to that organization over the years.

“No, we’ve made the property line, so it doesn’t impact that outfield fence. They’re just kind of shy of us,” Mumford said. “There won’t be any impact and it’s avoiding the dugouts on the other side. So, it kind of has to do some jogs and twists to get around it but the idea is to not impact Little League fields at all.”

Councilman Dan Marabello suggested that Burris Foods use strong windows in the new storage facility in case there is a heavy hitter in the Little League Park. Mumford joked that the building would give the players something to aim for.

After the discussion, council approved the change to the Comprehensive Plan with a vote of seven to zero with Councilman James abstaining. The change of zone from R1 to I1 was also approved with a vote of seven to zero with Councilman James abstaining.