The proponents of mixed-use zoning on Summit Street dominated discussion as McComb planning commissioners took comments Monday on two plans to resolve zoning issues there.
Summit Street is zoned C-1 neighborhood commercial, with homes on the street grandfathered in under a nonconforming permit use because they were already in the neighborhood when the zoning changed.
Planning commissioners are considering two proposals for Summit Street — the Burglund Corridor Mixed Use District and the Northeast McComb Neighborhood Commercial District.
A public hearing on the Northeast McComb plan will be at 5:15 p.m. Sept. 2 at city hall. City administrator Jim Storer urged commissioners to let the residents decide the zoning issue for their neighborhood.
The Burglund plan would allow residential and commercial buildings to exist together along Summit Street from New York Avenue to Higgins Drive.
The Northeast McComb plan calls for commercial zoning on Summit Street from the 300 block of New York Avenue to the middle of the 800 block of Summit Street, with R-60 zoning for one- and two-family residences north of that area.
The Burglund plan was the guide for the Northeast McComb plan. Sonja Norwood, who along with Sherry Robinson developed the Northeast McComb plan, said they want to have business zoning on Summit Street but exclude alcohol sales, gas stations and convenience stores that are there now.
When Norwood and Robinson presented their proposal in July they said businesses in the proposed residential area would be grandfathered in.
Norwood said their goal is to make Summit Street a safer place and attract people to live there.
Norwood and her sister, Beverly Bates, own a vacant lot at 877-B Summit St. She divides her time between Los Angeles and a home she owns on Stewart Mill Road east of McComb, and occasionally stays with her sister, who lives on Summit Street.
Robinson said she has lots on the 800 block of Summit Street. She lives on Wall Street, a block west of Summit Street’s north end. Robinson said the nearby housing projects at the end of Summit at Higgins Drive “have a lot of young people.”
She said they are trying to get rid of businesses on the street that attract crime.
But Ron Gibson, who owns a Summit Street business and supports the Burglund plan, said the street should remain mixed use.
“There’s no way someone’s going to build a $200,000 house on Summit Street,” he said.
Gibson said the businesses on Summit Street pay property taxes to the city, while many of the houses on the street “are tax exempt,” and the owners of vacant lots pay about $60 or less in property taxes.
“I pay more on my utility bill than they do in property tax,” he said. “This city needs revenue. Summit Street needs commercial development.”
Other speakers agreed with Gibson, adding that mixed-use zoning has always been part of the street’s character. They said splitting it would make no sense, and that the area could not support expensive homes.
Warren Ellis Gilmore, a former Summit Street resident who still owns property there, said the Burglund community has other areas that are more conducive to residential development than Summit Street.
Summit Street, he said, should be commercial to help the rest of the community.
