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Oriental’s Town Board voted 3-1 tonight in favor of establishing an Overlay District on Upper Broad Street.

It means that new construction of business buildings must have porches across at least half of their frontage facing Broad Street, landscape buffers near the street, and pathways linking their parking lots to adjacent properties. Buildings 25 feet high or less in that overlay district could have flat roofs, something not allowed on other lots zoned MU.

Voting in favor were Commissioners Dave Cox, Nancy Inger and Sherrill Styron. Commissioner Candy Bohmert voted against. Commissioner Kathy Kellam was absent.

For a previous story on this issue, click here.

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**Update:

Because landowners in the affected portion of Broad Street were not personally notified of the changes the Overlay District would have made, the Town Board voted in November to re-open the process and hold another public hearing in December on passing the Overlay District. At the December 2nd Town Board meeting, two realtors spoke against the plan and the Town Board decided to indefinitely table action on the Overlay District.

At the Town Board’s next meeting, on January 6, 2009 , a change to the GMO was proposed to do away with the existing roof pitch requirement and allow flat roofs for any new business building in town. This proposal comes with none of the trade-offs that had been part of the now-tabled Overlay District plan. The Town Board voted to hold a public hearing on the matter at its next meeting, on February 3.

The proposal would allow flat-roofs beyond the upper Broad Street area of what would’ve been the Overlay District. As the proposal is written, flat-roofed business buildings could be built in all of the Multiple-Use districts in Oriental — along all of Broad and Hodges Streets and most of Midyette, parts of their side streets and at the marinas. (The red and orange bits on the zoning map.)

Posted Tuesday October 7, 2008 by Melinda Penkava

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