Jones County planners recommend rezoning 1-acre parcel to allow manufactured home

The Jones County Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend that the county commissioners approve a request from property owner Robert Robbins to rezone a one-acre portion of his larger tract from single-family residential to rural residential to allow placement of a manufactured or modular home.

The recommendation moves the request to the Board of Commissioners for a final decision. Commission members debated whether to rezone only a single acre or the entire parcel; staff and the applicant agreed to identify the single acre “as shown” on the applicant’s drawing so the recommendation would apply only to that portion.

Robbins told the commission he had purchased the tract and needed the zoning change because some lenders will not finance manufactured homes on very large parcels and he may need a manufactured rather than a modular home to meet his timeline. "It's $385,000 is the manufactured home that I'm getting. So trust me, it'll be nice. It won't be an eyesore," Robbins said. He said the parcel has a perpetual conservation easement that limits clearing and subdivision and that only two small areas on the property are buildable.

Commissioners pressed Robbins and staff for clarity about the exact location of the one acre and whether the rezoning could be limited to a mapped area. One board member said, "I would feel better about it if it was designated on a map, on a plat to show me where that house is going to be," and staff explained the commission could treat the application as "as shown" on the applicant's scaled drawing and could, if needed, require a survey for administrative purposes.

After discussion the commission made a motion and voted to recommend approval of the rezoning of the one small parcel; the recommendation will go forward to the county commissioners for a final decision. The planning commission's recommendation does not itself change the property's zoning.

Details about the larger parcel's total acreage were discussed at the meeting with references to both "about 74 acres" and to the buyer having purchased "over a hundred acres," and Robbins and staff said the conservation easement would limit subdivision. The exact final legal description of the one-acre area to be rezoned was not recorded in the commission's recommendation and was described in the meeting as being shown on the applicant's drawings rather than created as a recorded subdivision plat.