WINFIELD – A Putnam County Commission rezoning vote is on hold after a circuit judge filed a court order stopping it just hours before a meeting.
On July 29, Circuit Judge Phillip Stowers filed the Order on Rule to Show Cause in relation to a Petition for Writ of Mandamus and/or Writ of Prohibition filed Linda Tennant and Fred Mader against the Putnam County Commission and Commissioners Ron Foster, Brian Ellis and Andy Skidmore.
According to the order, Timothy and Dawn Spradling had filed a rezoning petition for property at 1006 and 1012 Mount Vernon Road to be rezoned from single family residential to suburban commercial.
Stowers’ order says neither the county planning commission nor 50 percent of affected property owners originated the rezoning petition, the county commission is barred from reconsidering a rezoning request it previously denied on the merits where no appeal of the earlier decisions was taken and “approval of the rezoning request would be arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of power and clearly wrong.”
Stowers suspended the proceedings before the Putnam County Commission pending a final decision by the court. The order schedules a full evidentiary hearing for September 10.
The county planning commission already has voted against the rezoning at least twice previously, but it voted July 20 to recommend the rezoning be approved by the county commission. The county commission also previously voted on the matter, but technical issues nullified the vote.
“It’s our duty as a planning commission to take up any action that would be requested of us,” Planning Commission President Jacob Pack told WSAZ last week. “Whenever someone would come to put an application in, we have (a duty) to address it and that’s why we exist.”
The property, which is empty, only can have a single-family home or duplex built there now. But, the property owner wants the county to approve the zoning change to allow for a business to be built instead.
Timothy Spradling owns Benchmark Construction. The Spradlings purchased the property in 2013 for $88,000.
Some neighbors are against the change, saying it would decrease property values and bring more traffic.
The petition was filed on behalf of Tennant and Mader by the Moye Law Office in Winfield.
Putnam Circuit Court case number 21-C-71