Neighboring property owners asked the Cullman Planning Commission to table a rezoning request along Main Avenue Tuesday, Sept. 3, after they said the public notices they received contained the wrong address.

Local realtor Neal Culpepper spoke on behalf of his clients, Karen and Lawayne Gilbreath, in favor of the rezoning request. He said the property located at 1011 Main Avenue was currently under contract, but that the sale was contingent upon the lot being rezoned from a residential to a business district. The buyer has indicated their intention to remodel the home into an office building he said.

Following the meeting Culpepper said that he was unaware of what type of business the buyer was proposing apart from it being “an investment property for an office.”

The 3.7 acre property, which spans the city block between Main Avenue and Hickory Street, is directly connected to three other residential properties. Each of the neighboring homeowners voiced their concerns with the rezoning to the commission.

Dr. Thomas Barnes and his wife, Bonnie, own the adjacent property located at 1107 Lessman Street. He said the original notice he and his neighbors received stated a rezoning request had been submitted for 1101 Main Avenue SW. Barnes requested the commission hold off on making their recommendation to the Cullman City Council until correct notices could be mailed to homeowners in the nearby residential neighborhood.

City attorney Luke Satterfield said the city is required by law to provide adjacent property owners advance notice of any public hearings regarding zoning requests. He acknowledged the misprint on the more widely distributed, original notice, but said each of the adjacent property owners had been given the corrected information in advance.

One property owner, Neal Morrison, disputed this claim. He said he and his sister had inherited the home located at 915 Main Avenue but that he only became aware of the corrected address earlier that afternoon.

Tina Murphree said she and her husband Randy purchased the property located at 922 Hickory Avenue last year and have spent more than $100,000 in renovations with the intention of it becoming her family’s “forever home.” After receiving her original notice, Murphree said she called the number listed on the notice and was told by a city of Cullman employee that the address was an empty lot on the opposite side of Main Avenue.

She said it wasn’t until earlier this week that she learned that the original notice had contained a misprint and that the actual rezoning request was for the Gilbreath’s property.

“I wasn’t too worried about it because that [the area across Main Avenue] is already a big business area,” Murphree said.

Murphree said the Barnes’ informed her of the corrected address last week and that she feared that rezoning the property could allow for future, higher-volume businesses within the residential neighborhood if the current buyer ever decided to sell the property.

“It doesn’t matter what their [the buyer] future plans are. One day they are going to retire or she could sell that property at anytime. Once that property is rezoned to business that encroaches on everybody,” Murphree said. “I’ve spent a lot of money remodeling and I would hate to see all that go down the drain because somebody puts a parking lot, vape store or gas station right beside my house.”

Commissioner Bobby Kelly made the only original motion to provide the city council with a favorable recommendation to rezone the property. Satterfield said the commission was able to either: provide a favorable recommendation, an unfavorable recommendation or have Culpepper withdraw and resubmit his rezoning request which would restart the request process.

Culpepper declined to withdraw the request which led to the commission unanimously deciding to provide a favorable recommendation.

The request will now move to the Cullman City Council who will make a final decision whether or not the property will be rezoned.