Residents fight to keep businesses out of neighborhood

Residents of the Ashley Oaks subdivision came to the Hawthorne City Commission meeting on Tuesday to speak out about why they do not want a section of property located in the front of their neighborhood to be rezoned for commercial use.

Several property owners voiced concerns about how allowing businesses to move into their neighborhood would create more traffic and compromise the safety of the residents and their children.

“It’s already a difficult area to come and go from because of the structure of the streets and where it joins on to 20,” said Nancy Kirkland, an Ashley Oaks resident. “Any kind of commercial development would really complicate the situation.”

The 2.64-acre piece of land is owned by Ben Campen, the owner of Campen auctions. It is currently divided into six vacant lots, which are all zoned as “residential single family.”

According to Campen, who had the 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.

A representative from the planning and zoning board confirmed that there is no record of the property being rezoned.

The first record of the property being zoned as residential appeared in 1991 when the city commission adopted a comprehensive plan for development that included a future land use map.

Some residents argued that rezoning the land for commercial use would not be fair to those who bought property under the impression that the neighborhood was strictly residential.

“I don’t think most of us would have bought homes there if we knew that they were going to put in businesses,” said Jennifer Tozzo.

City Commissioner Deloris Roberts said that she did not approve of making the land commercial because the city would not be able to control what type of businesses could be built there.

“Unless we were able to say this can come here and this can’t, I would not be in favor of it because we all have residential area and homes that we would not like to be invaded by things that could come in,” she said.

Roberts noted that if any type of business was allowed to be built there, even a porn shop or Café Risque could be put in front of the neighborhood.

Vice Mayor Matthew Surrency said that while he was apologetic to Campen for any wrongs that he may have incurred from a previous administration, he was also concerned about being able to regulate what could be built on the land. He suggested that a low-impact business such as a real estate office might be acceptable.

The planning and zoning board representative advised the city commission that it could adopt a new policy that would give a conditional land use designation to a property that was zoned for “commercial neighborhood.”

Campen first came to the city commission for an approval to have his land rezoned in 2005 and was denied.

Pat McCloud, who owns two pieces of property in Ashley Oaks, questioned why Campen hadn’t pointed out the error sooner.

“I don’t know what took so long for him to point this out, because it should have showed up on his tax record,” he said.

The city commission voted to postpone making a decision about the rezoning until city staff and Campen can get together and come up with a proper designation for the property.