North Montgomery Community Concerned About Possible Land Rezoning
For 20 years, Greta Sayles has lived in New Hope Village – a community in north Montgomery.
But now, she and several people living there are not happy with a potential rezoning.
“I didn’t know that this was something that was coming up years ago. Nobody told me that. It’s emotional sometimes. Sometimes I go to bed at night tears in my eyes because it seems like we’ve been railroaded and there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Sayles.
The property was once owned by Montgomery’s Habitat for Humanity – who sold it to Grady Hicks.
“I had confirmation from the city that, that particular road was not a particular road and if a private purchaser purchased that property and decided that they wanted to put a fence or whatever it was in their right to do so because the official road ended at the paved road,” said Nick Mielke, Executive Director of Montgomery’s Habitat for Humanity.
“We worked on that for about two months and all they had to do was come to us and say “Would you stop taking the trees down and we wouldn’t have to go through all this and we would’ve probably handled this in-house so to speak,” said Grady Hicks, owner of the property.
Montgomery County Commissioner Isaiah Sankey says the potential rezoning raises concerns about safety.
“It presents a real grave situation when it gives only one way in and one way out of the neighborhood which causes them to have to drive through another neighborhood that’s crime infested and presents a real danger. Not only that but if a train is on the track and there’s medical emergency – the emergency vehicles can’t get out of this community,” said Sankey.
Planning commission officials did not approve rezoning Thursday.
Instead they are hoping that the residents and hicks find common ground on the issue and return to the commission’s next meeting.
“We hoped not to come back but there’s hope because they did not make a decision tonight so we still have hope that these citizens – that they can go live a meaningful life in a neighborhood that’s safe,” said Sankey.
The planning commission’s next meeting will be on Thursday, July 25th.
