Published: May 20, 2009 01:21 am      

Pleasant Valley to vote on zoning code

Officials expect passage tonight

PLEASANT VALLEY — After tonight, Pleasant Valley may be the third Marion County municipality to regulate the use of property within city limits.

Pleasant Valley City Council members are set to vote on the adoption of an ordinance to create a zoning code within municipal limits at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. And judging by a lack of any objection during two public hearings held for the ordinance Tuesday, officials expect it to pass with flying colors.

“I would call it user-friendly and straightforward,” Councilman George Boyles said of the zoning code. “It provides protection for the residents in the community, and we think that’s what everybody wants.”

Developed by the city’s planning and zoning commission over the last year, the code is a more simplified version of a more complicated plan introduced in the early 2000’s, commission chairman Doug Wise explained.

“We simplified it down to what Pleasant Valley actually is and made a document better suited for Pleasant Valley,” he said. The code basically breaks the city’s 2,093 acres into three separate districts. According to the documents, these districts will be classified as Residential-1 (R-1) , Residential-2 (R-2) and Mixed-Use.

The R-1 district will be for detached, single-family residences. The R-2 district will be for residences at a variety of densities not to exceed 12 units per acre, and the Mixed-Use district will be for retail, commercial and service-use structures.

And while there were some questions from the public about the code during its inception, Wise said that everybody seems to pretty much be in favor of it at this point.

He said that the code was developed to basically protect the confines of the residential areas within the city. With around 3,200 residents, Pleasant Valley is made up primarily of residential space, and this code will keep businesses or commercial owners from erecting parking lots and other unwanted extremities in residential neighborhoods, Wise explained.

City representatives said there are more than 150 businesses currently located in Pleasant Valley city limits, which encompasses all of Kingmont, Millersville, Benton’s Ferry and Pleasant Valley. If the ordinance passes tonight, it will go into effect in 30 days.

And sometime before it is implemented, a board of zoning appeals will be named to hear appeals, authorize special requests and perform other authoritative duties for the code.

Currently, the only Marion County municipalities that have zoning codes are Fairmont and Mannington.

E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com.