Town Council Hears of Proposed Zoning Amendment on permanent farm stores

By DAVID QUESENBERRY

Patriot Publishing 

The Pulaski Town Council learned at its Tuesday night meeting of a proposed amendment to the Zoning Ordinance to allow permanent farm markets within the Town limits.

Steve Semones, Senior Director of Land Development for Westwood, told Council that his firm had been asked to provide a recommendation to the Town for a zoning text amendment to allow permanent farm stores within the Town.

Under the amendment, farm markets would be under the permitted agricultural uses in the Rural Residential District. He said since the Town did not have agriculture zoning as did most other communities, the permanent farm store use was best suited for the Rural Residential District.

Referring to the initial draft of the amendment in the packet, Semones suggested that the Town administration and staff review it to see if it meets the intent of what is wanted and whether or not it remains within the boundaries of what the Town would be comfortable with for a farm market. The draft amendment also includes provisions for the origin of products sold at the market, building size limitations, setbacks and parking.

Concerning the origin of goods sold at the market, Semones said they looked at the vendor’s requirement for the Farmer’s Market concerning how far the vendors could bring merchandise in and still sell it as part of a local or regional farmer’s market.

According to the draft, all goods sold shall be produced in a 75-mile radius of the property.

Semones, referring to a zoning map of the Town, said that the Rural Residential Districts were all in the southeast part of the town. The property that brought this issue up he said, was in the north side of Town. If the amendment for farm markets was adopted, Semones said, it was likely that there would be a rezoning request for that piece of property in the future. He added that he would be doing a similar briefing to the Planning Commission before filing a formal application for a zoning amendment. After the application is filed, there will be public hearings held before the Planning Commission and Town Council.

Following the presentation, Councilman Joel Burchett said, “At the moment, the area I think you’re referring to, some of the citizens there do not want that. And those people have lived there for decades, and they spent a lot of money to live in an R-1 area. Some may be for it, but I know some are against it.”

Burchett said, “My first obligation is to abide by the existing laws and to represent all constituents. As of right now, unless someone can change my mind, I’m not for it.”

Additional comments were made by Council members during the Council Comments part of the agenda.

Council Brooks Dawson said there were two conversations that were needed, one concerning the proposed Rural Residential amendment and the second involving any rezoning of property for the new use.

“It’s important for us to look at there’s two separate conversations that the gentleman brought up. One, he mentioned there was a property that may be interested in rezoning. I think that’s a completely separate conversation from whether or not it makes sense for us as a town to make a change to the RR District options.”

Dawson noted there were two large properties that were zoned Rural Residential. The question was whether or not the proposed use should be allowed in the existing RR zoned areas. He again said that if the proposed amendment went before the Planning Commission and Council, it should be considered separately from the later issue of a rezoning of property for the proposed use.

“If we’re talking about rezoning a property, then I think it’s very important that we hear from the adjoining property owners and get a chance to understand whether or not they agree with that being appropriate rezoning that effects their property.”

Councilman Burchett said the proposed action would involve rezoning an R-1 area surrounded by homes, which he agreed should be considered separately from the zoning amendment. He again stressed the importance of letting citizens know and felt he had an obligation to keep the citizens informed.

Burchett said, “I don’t have enough information at this point to even be able to contemplate rezoning that.” He said that citizens needed to be aware that this issue was coming up and that it might impact their neighborhood.

In other business, Council heard from Austin Painter, Project Engineer on reimbursements received by the Town from the Federal and state governments for damages from Hurricane Helene and the February 2025 flood event.

Painter said that on reimbursements for Hurricane Helene the Town received $22,661 for generator expenses and employee time at the Filter Plant and the Raw Water Intake. It also received an additional $59,242 to cover the cost of emergency pump repairs and staff time due to the increased flows to the 4A pump station during the hurricane.

For the February 2025 flooding the Town received $43,121 to cover the cost of employee time for damages from flooding and damages to the basement of the Municipal Building.

An additional appropriation of $50,569 will be received from the Federal and state government for wash out damages to the Dora Trail and to some of the fixtures, gravel and soil at the Bike Park.

Currently, Painter said the Town had “locked in” a total of approximately $152,949 in aid from the federal and state governments. One mitigation contract with FEMA for approximately $50,000 was still pending for additional recovery work for the Municipal Building basement. All together Painter said the Town would receive a grand total of approximately $200,000 in aid.

The next scheduled meeting of the Pulaski Town Council will be at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, April 7, 2026 in the Council Chambers of the Town Municipal Building at 42 First Street, N.W.