By Jason C. Mattox
A Patton Lane resident who wants to place a mobile home on her property was again denied her request in her third trip to a Batesville City Board meeting.
Upset with the denial of her rezoning request, Edith Cole promised legal action as she exited the meeting last Tuesday afternoon.
Cole had requested that her property be rezoned from R-1 to M-1 to allow a mobile home.
"When I started looking into it, I didn’t know that you banned trailers in the city," she said.
Cole confronted aldermen about a mobile home which she said was recently placed on King Street.
Aldermen explained that the mobile home on King Street was placed there in compliance with a city ordinance that allows a one-year grace period to replace a trailer. (Acccording to Code Enforcement Office administrator Pam Comer, if a mobile home is removed from property, the owner has one year to replace it with another mobile home without the need for a variance or rezoning hearing.)
Assistant city attorney Colmon Mitchell told city leaders that the only way rezoning can take place is if there was a mistake in the original ordinance or if the neighborhood had changed.
"I just want to get a trailer in there so my son can get his kids in school," Cole replied. "They can’t stay with me because that would be too many people in my house."
Cole told the board she was planning to have the mobile home moved from the sales lot to her lot anyway.
"They are telling me I have to come get it, so I guess I will just pull it down here," she said.
Ward 2 Alderman Rufus Manley asked Cole to reconsider that action.
"If you do that, we will have no option but to have the trailer escorted off the property," he said. "See if they will let you keep it up there until you can find a church or some friends that might let you put it there until this is resolved."
Cole then asked what the next step was in the process as the board denied the request 3-1 with Manley being the lone nay vote.
"It seems to me like this is a race issue, and you need to make your rules apply to everyone," she said. "I am getting a lawyer because this just isn’t fair."
Cole has 10 days from the date of the meeting to appeal the decision to the Panola County Circuit Court. |