By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

A portion of land recently annexed into the City of Clanton is one step closer to being in the building zone the owners want following a vote by the Clanton Planning Commission on March 12.

The Planning Commission unanimously approved rezoning two pieces of property on County Road 633/ Automotive Lane.

The rezoning requests will go to the Clanton City Council for final approval before the new zones become official.

The property had recently been annexed at the request of representing Ballinton Place Subdivision and Straight Line Engineering.

The first piece of property was approved to be rezoned as RG — Garden Home Community Zoning, which allows for smaller lot sizes and houses to be closer together. The plan is for 42 homes to be built in the subdivision.

Building inspector Gene Martin said the parcel of land had already been platted for a garden home subdivision when the property was in the county and some of the infrastructure was already in place.

The second piece of property is about 17 acres and would be rezoned R2 —Residential.

A time for public comments was held. While there were questions about the project, no objections were made.

The remaining 150 acres that was annexed will remain in municipal reserve at this time. It is this property that makes all of the annexed property continuous with the city limits.

Plans for a new building at 1940 Big M Boulevard for Peach Automotive were also unanimously approved.

All of the required architectural stamped drawings had been submitted and reviewed by the building department prior to the meeting.

Martin said the building is expected to be for Mahindra tractor or automobile sales.

Another resident discussed a potential project for a metal building at the intersection of Sixth Street and Third Avenue. Planning Commission member Jeff Mims asked about putting a brick facade on the front of the building, similar to what they had required recently on other metal buildings that had been approved.

Business owner James E. Cleckler said adding brick to the front does not make the building look much better given the price.

However, he said he did have plans to improve the look of the front of the building.

“I want to put some awnings out in front,” he said.

A few other options for changing the facade were discussed.

The Planning Commission members asked that he pick out exacts how it wanted to look and submit it at a later date.

A lawn mower sales and repair business was recommended as a plan for the building.

Martin stressed the requirement to have “an engineer stamped drawing,” designating internal system including plumbing and HVAC.