The Clanton Planning Commission held a public hearing during its meeting on June 11 to discuss a commercial rezoning oversight.

Lela Allred came before the planning commission in hopes of selling property located at 1605 Seventh St. N as commercial.

The property recently housed a Sears Appliance Repair store.

According to Building Inspector Gene Martin, the property has been considered to be commercial, but somewhere along the way it was never officially marked as so.

“Whoever started that Sears Roebuck [in 1996] did not get it properly rezoned,” Martin said. “It was never recorded in the courthouse books as being commercial, so that one spot didn’t get picked up.”

He found the mistake after receiving a call from the purchasing party’s attorney.

“It is commercial,” Martin said. “We look at it as being grandfathered, but the attorney of the purchaser said that they ‘wanted it in writing that it has officially been approved before their client purchases it.’ She [Allred] had no choice if she wanted to sell it, except to go through this application process.”

As a result, the planning commission unanimously approved the rezoning of the property from R-3 (multi-family residential district) to B-2 (general business district).