Kingsland Seeking People For New Planning Board

KINGSLAND - Mayor Sharon Crosby has announced that the City of Kingsland is seeking five volunteers from Kingsland or the surrounding area to serve on a planning commission for the city.A planning commission makes recommendations to the city council regarding zoning recommendations, annexations and conditional uses of properties.Crosby said the planning commission can have up to two elected city officials serve on the five-person board, but the rest must be citizens from the city or residents who are near the city limits. She noted that all five positions could go to people who are not an elected city official.Anyone interested in volunteering to serve on the board is asked to call Kingsland City Hall at (870) 348-5500 or Mayor Sharon Crosby at (870) 3485848.City Attorney Thomas Burns suggested that the city create a planning commission during the Kingsland City Council's May meeting as a way to possibly annex the new Dollar General store into the city limits.While a portion of the entrance into the Dollar General parking lot is within the city limits, the store itself is not. As a result, Kingsland's one percent sales tax is not collected on the sales made through the store.Burns told the mayor and the city council in May that creating a planning commission would allow the city to annex the store via a city ordinance rather than having a petition drive and election to get it in the city. He said there was not enough time to have the annexation put on this year's general election ballot in November, and Crosby said the city cannot afford to pay for a special election to decide on the annexation.Typically, a zoning commission designates zones within a city for certain types of development. Some of the zone designations include commercial/retail, industrial and residential use. Since Kingsland does not have an existing planning commission, Burns said this new group would designate those zones within the city.B...