Tuesday, May 14, 2024–10:43 a.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

The Rome City Commission has approved a rezoning request for 14 town houses on the North Broad Extension.

The application was tabled during the commission’s last meeting, following a public hearing.

Rome-Floyd County Planning Director Brice Wood told the commission Monday that the developer has come back with an updated site plan.

“As you know, the previous one showed 14 driveways exiting onto the North Broad Extension,” Wood said. “He has redrawn it, and it currently shows two points of ingress and egress with shared driveways. This is a preferable site plan and still comes with a staff recommendation of approval. The alternative being that if you were to turn it down, he still has the right to build single-family homes.”

Some nearby residents who attended the meeting objected because a second public hearing was not held prior to Monday’s vote.

City Attorney Andy Davis explained why.

“The public hearing on the rezoning was held at the last meeting,” Davis said. “The process allowed those that had objections, and there were objections at the last meeting, and those were voiced. The motion to approve or deny was tabled, and so it was sitting on a table. The only thing that was left to do was for it to come back off the table to be approved or denied.”

The only change was the condition that there be only one entrance and one exit instead of the originally planned 14 driveways.