Extracted fom a website written by B. Belton www.dekalbzoning.com

The rezoning process:

The Planning Department conducts the rezoning application cycle six times a year. A rezoning cycle starts with the deadline for receiving applications, and ends when the County Board of Commissioners hear the application.

In the first two weeks of the cycle, advertising notices are sent to the newspaper. Notices are also sent to all of the groups that will review the applications.

In the fifth week of the cycle, the county Planning Department makes their recommendations and comments on each application. The Planning Department reviews the application for correctness, and checks with other county departments for comments on issues such as drainage or traffic impact.

In the sixth week of the cycle, the Planning Commission meets at a formal public hearing in Maloof Auditorium at 1300 Commerce Drive to review all rezoning applications. The Planning Commission decisions are recommendations. The Planning Commissioners have access to all of the previous recommendations, and they have had time to personally visit the properties. At the public hearing the applicant is given ten minutes to present the reasons why the proposed rezoning should be allowed. Anyone who wishes to support the application may also speak with the applicants permission. Then the podium is opened to opponents of the application for ten minutes. If the applicant has time remaining from his/her ten minutes then they are allowed to speak in rebuttal. The Planning Commission may decide to Approve, Approve with conditions, Defer, Withdraw, Deny, or take No Action on the application.

Approve means approved as is.
Approval with conditions means that written conditions would be added to the application. These written conditions would be binding which is not true of verbal promises about a property.
Defer in effect means, no recommendation, since the Planning Commission will not hear an application again before the County Board of Commissioners has a chance to make a final decision.
Withdraw is as if the applicant withdrew the application. The applicant would be free to resubmit the application again at any time.
Deny means denied and a new application cannot be submitted for two years.
No Action means just that.

All decisions of the Planning Commission are recommendations only.

In week eight, at the end of the zoning cycle, the County Board of Commissioners meet at a formal public hearing in Maloof Auditorium at 1300 Commerce Drive to review all rezoning applications. The public hearing has the same format as the Planning Commission meeting. The Board of Commissioners makes a final decision on each rezoning request. The Commissioners have access to all of the previous recommendations and information gathered on the application. The Board of Commissioners have the same choices of decisions as the Planning Commission, with a few slight differences.

A decision of Defer means that the item will be reheard at the next daytime meeting of the Board after formal public notices have been posted, usually four weeks.
A Deferral, Decision Only, means that at the meeting when the Commissioners decide on the item, the public will be present, but no public comments will be allowed.
A Deferral, Full Cycle, means that an item will have to go before the Planning Commission again and be heard by the Board of Commissioners in two months.

Zoning Board of Appeals Variance process

The Zoning Board of Appeals is intended to provide some flexibility to the zoning process by allowing variations from the zoning ordinances. They hear cases where a strict, uniform application of the code would work a hardship on a property owner due to unique topography, etc. Property owners with such problems apply to the Board of Appeals for a variance. The Board of Appeals' function is not to hear cases where someone is having a personal financial problem. The Board of Appeals is not intended as a means to circumvent the rezoning process. The variances granted by the Board of Appeals can include uses of a property as well as other zoning restrictions.

The Zoning Board of Appeals meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 1 PM at the Maloof Auditorium.

Administrative Variance process

Administrative Variances are granted by the county staff without a public hearing. These are intended to be variances that make construction simpler. For example, the setback requirements for the location of a building can be reduced by 10% less than allowed by zoning ordinances if an administrative variance is granted. However, conditions that have been added to a zoning cannot be modified by administrative variance.

Hampton Hall
Civic Association