Bell’s Town Council approved a conditional use permit and denied a zoning change at Thursday’s meeting.
Bears Truck and Trailer Heavy Recovery applied for a conditional use permit for its property on CR 236 on the north end of Bell.
The property is 2.69 acres and will include a ware house and office trailer.
The property is currently zoned C-1 commercial, which does not allow for a salvage yard.
To prevent the possibility of the property being considered a salvage yard, Town Attorney David Lang recommended imposing a limit for the amout of time vehicles and trailers can remain on the property.
Lang recommended 90 days.
Lang said he would also require the property to surrounded by 8-foot fence that is either made of or covered by an opaque material so any wrecked cars or trailers are not visible outside of the property.
Lang said if the town decided to not require opaque fencing and the property sold to someone else for the same use, the town would not be able to require the new owners to have opaque fencing.
There will be no public parking
He recommended approval of the conditional use permit with the noted conditions.
The council approved the permit with a 5-0 vote.
The council had another matter regarding that area of town, as Michael Osteen came before the board asking for a zoning change.
The land at the corner of 129 and 236 is currently zone R-1 residential, which allows for one house per acre.
Osteen originally asked for the property to be changed to R-3 residential, which allows for one home per quarter acre, to build a subdivision.
Osteen asked the board to allow him to amend the application and change the property to R-2 residential, which allows for one home per half acre.
The whole property is 38.12 acres.
The council expressed concern over the amount of growth a subdivision of that size and density, with up 70-80 single-family homes, would bring and its effects on traffic and infrastructure.
Derek Sanders, a former councilmember, expressed concern over growth.
He compared growth to aging, saying it is going to happen, but you work to control it like you go to the doctor and take medicine to control aging.
“It gets to a point where enough’s enough,” Sanders said. “We don’t have water, we don’t have sewer.”
“We’ve already got two that are full and one that’s fixing to start down here behind Moon’s [Marathon] that’ll be coming and they’re gonna start building in there,” Sanders added.
“How is it fair when you’ve got three or four other subdivisions going on with out-of-towners, not even locals,” Osteen said. “They’re operating and building on R-3, to tell us ‘no.’”
In the end, the town decided to not to make Osteen go through the application process again and pay for the advertising to amend his application.
The application was denied with a 5-0 vote.