Hawthorne closes deal with Campen

A debate over the correct zoning of a piece of property along State Road 20 in Hawthorne has finally been put to rest.  After years of disagreement between Ben Campen and Hawthorne City officials, the two sides reached an agreement that will seemingly settle the issue permanently.

In a 3-0 vote Tuesday night, Hawthorne commissioners voted to approve the rezoning of the 2.64-acre parcel of land owned by Campen.  The property, consisting of six vacant lots, had been recognized as having a residential single family zoning designation according to city records.  But according to Campen, who had the Ashley Oaks subdivision annexed into the city and helped develop it in 1975, his land was originally zoned for commercial use. Campen said that he never had the property rezoned and that it was a scrivener’s error that caused the zoning of the land to be changed from commercial to residential.

Campen said that the change in zoning has devalued his property and violated his rights as a property owner.

“I am simply trying to take something that was wronged and make it right,” Campen said in a Sept. 7 commission meeting.  Campen even has tax records which he says prove he’s been paying commercial taxes on the parcel. 

By the Dec. 14 commission meeting, Campen was ready to hand the property over to the City of Hawthorne.  In exchange, Campen wanted the city to rezone the property first.  Under the agreement offered by Campen, the city would acknowledge that the parcel he was donating to the city was a commercial one.  Campen’s concern was that if he donated the property and was then audited, having any records which show the property as anything but “commercial” could create issues in determining the value.

Campen insisted that the agreement to donate the property would need to be signed by the end of this year so he could take the tax deduction for the 2010 tax year.  Other conditions of the agreement are that a billboard already located on the property would be allowed to remain indefinitely. 

At the Dec. 14 meeting, several commissioners said they were not prepared to accept the property with the condition that they acknowledge it as a commercial site since the city’s zoning maps have no historical reference to that site having been designated commercial.

After a lengthy debate that night, however, commissioners and city staffers suggested the city could conduct a second public hearing for the pending rezoning sought in September and approve the site as commercial.  During the same meeting, and after that approval, the city could then enter into the agreement to take the donation from Campen. That led to the meeting Dec. 28 in which the deal was finalized.

In the Dec. 28 meeting, Mayor Eleanor Randall and commissioners Deloris Roberts and William Carlton all voted in favor of the rezoning and agreement.  Vice Mayor Matthew Surrency and Commissioner Harry Carter were not in attendance.

Campen reportedly signed over a quitclaim deed to the property Tuesday night.