Commission sends contested East Garland rezoning back to planning commission

Scott Lyons briefed the commission on Ordinance 599, a request to rezone an East Garland parcel from the Agricultural Heritage Zone to A-0.5. Lyons recounted the file's history: the request was first heard in May 2024, the planning commission recommended approval, the county later adopted the Ag Heritage zone via Ordinance 6636 in November 2025, and the A-0.5 zone was removed from the land-use code by Ordinance 601 in September 2024 — making the current application a grandfathered request.

Applicant Brody Caldwell told the commission he bought the roughly 19.75-acre property in 2017 to keep it in the family and had sought the A-0.5 option so his children could build nearby while preserving agricultural use. "The reason we went to 0.5 acres so we could put the smaller lots on so we could still farm it," Caldwell said, adding that the family would be open to frontage lots and negotiation to keep the back portions in agricultural production.

Commissioners questioned access, road width and what the county could require of a developer; staff noted a developer would be required to dedicate 30 feet from centerline and that an undersized county road would remain a bottleneck unless negotiated. Commissioners discussed options including denying the ordinance and asking the applicant to resubmit or sending the matter back to the planning commission to explore a frontage-zone approach. Commissioner Perry moved to send the application back to planning with instructions to consider frontage-based lots and negotiate the back acreage; Commissioner Bingham seconded and the motion passed.