Patterson gets new zoning map

With one of its first votes, the new Patterson City Council made a potentially far-reaching change in the city.

The council, with three new faces among its five members, voted Jan. 3 to adopt a new zoning map that includes a zone for manufacturing.

The Jan. 3 meeting was the first of the new four-year term after the Nov. 8 election, although no actual balloting was involved. Incumbents Lee Condolle and Ray Dewey, along with new members R. Demale Bowden, Mamie Perry and Miranda Weinbach, all qualified without opposition.

The same was true for Mayor Rodney Grogan and Police Chief Garrett Grogan.

The new council voted to make Condolle the mayor pro tem.

The new zoning map was developed by the South Central Regional Planning and Development Commission staff, hired by the city government, with feedback from city officials and joint public hearings with the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Although zoning rules have been updated in the meantime, the ordinance passed Jan. 3 replaces the zoning map established in 1976.

Some of the changes are minor or cosmetic — the colors used to represent various land uses, and changing the name of the residential zone where mobile homes are allowed from “RT” to “R3.”

But the new map also recognizes the city’s historic district along Main Street in the downtown area, where the zoning is mostly business and commercial.

Maybe the most significant change is the creation of a manufacturing zone on either side of a section of Red Cypress Road in the north central portion of the city.

The mayor had lamented at past meetings that, should a potential industrial employer arise, the city had no zone dedicated for that land use.

The council vote on the ordinance adopting the new zoning map was 5-0.

Also Tuesday, the council confirmed appointments to several city offices. They include:

—City Clerk Midge Bourgeois

—Tax Collector Angie Landry

—Attorney Russel Cremaldi

—Magistrate Edward Jones

--City Prosecutor Erica Rose.

The council also approved a recommendation from the Patterson Housing Authority board to reappoint Susie Autin Mendoza as executive director. The appointment is for four years at an annual salary of $64,000, which is paid with federal funds. Mendoza’s salary includes a $4,000 yearly raise.