The Madison City Council has postponed a public hearing concerning the annexation of property originally scheduled for its Oct. 9 meeting until the Nov. 13 meeting at the request of the applicant.
According to city documents, MS Park Construction wants Madison to annex property between Indian Creek Road and Monticello Highway and rezone it from Morgan County’s Light Industrial District Designation to Madison’s Light Industrial Manufacturing designation.
If the city council approves the annexation and rezoning, the applicant plans to submit a request for a conditional use permit for a distribution center to be located on the property.
Madison’s Planning and Zoning Commission met Sept. 21 and recommended that both requests be approved by a unanimous 3-0 vote.
The annexation and rezoning would allow two adjacent properties to be governed by the same set of zoning rules.
Morgan County’s I-1 zoning and Madison’s I-2 zoning are similar, with 65 percent of uses permitted under county zoning permitted in the Madison zoning, according to the Planning and Zoning staff report prepared by Bryce Jaeck.
“Distribution centers are a conditional use in both jurisdictions,” according to Jaeck’s analysis. “Additionally, dimensional requirements are very similar between the current county zone and the proposed city zoning district, with height being the only notable difference. (Morgan County allows for a taller structure of 95 feet compared to 50 feet for the city). Given these similarities, the requested zoning appears to be an equivalent zoning district.
“Developing under one set of regulations would ensure a uniform development. Currently, the Madison Safari Zoo is the only project under development that is jurisdictionally split. This division was resolved by having Morgan County handle all inspections and plan review as most of it is in unincorporated Morgan County. However, this has necessitated the city adopting language just for this use. A conditional use request for property straddling multiple jurisdictions would be more complicated to resolve.”
The report also says that the property is within the Madison water service area, but any improvements needed would be the developer’s responsibility.
The property is outside of Madison’s wastewater service area, but the developer could obtain city services if connections and required improvements are made by the developer.
Analysis of traffic impact for the rezoning has been limited by the fact that no specific use for the property has yet been identified.