Baker to form master plan
Print
Email
Save
Reprints
Twitter
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
BAKER — Planning and Zoning Commission members asked the mayor and City Council Tuesday to develop a master plan for the city.
Commission Chairman Sherman Dyer said the commission has had little input recently on the direction in which the city is developing, and member John O. Brown said the panel is a commission “without any power to plan.”
When asked by citizens about what is being built at a particular location, commission members often “have no clue” because developers bypass the commission and deal directly with the city’s Inspection Department if the development fits the existing zoning, Brown said.
“There is no planning,” Brown said. “Baker doesn’t have a master plan.”
Commission member Darnell Waites asked the council at a work session to “give us the opportunity to make the city better for the next 10 or 20 years.”
Brown, city attorney for Zachary, said Baker’s neighboring city has a review process that gives city officials, including the Planning and Zoning Commission, an opportunity “to see the very first view of what someone wants to build.”
Builders who deviate from that plan are forced to halt construction, he said.
When council members mentioned using Zachary’s ordinances as a model for strengthening Baker’s restrictions on zoning, subdivisions and building, commission member Veronica Howard-Sizer responded that Baker first “needs a plan.”
“Otherwise, ordinances would be done in the blind,” she said.
Council President Charles Vincent finally proposed, and both groups accepted, the idea of an ad hoc committee being given the task of coming up with a method of developing a master plan for the city.
The committee will hold its first meeting on July 13, the two groups decided.
 | ||||
| Most Popular | Most Emailed | Hot Topics | ||
