Livingston Approves East Main Townhouses After First Rezoning Reading

Townhouses on Livingston’s East Main Street were approved upon first reading at Monday night’s board of aldermen meeting.

The two parcels would be rezoned for multi-family housing. The townhouses range from two bedrooms to three bedrooms, with 18 to 20 homes set to be constructed in the location. Alderman Kelly Coleman said he supports the rezoning.

“There’s no doubt that our town has a great need for additional rental or other property such as these that you’re proposing,” Coleman said. “And having seen a lot of what Cody has done, I am impressed.”

The developer presented make-shift site plans and renderings to the entire board. Planning Director Tommy Lee said these plans do not bind the developer to recreate what was presented to the board, saying an official site plan will have to be submitted to the planning commission for approval.

“They brought that to the September planning commission meeting, we also had several questions for Cody Campbell, who is representing Mr. Clark in this matter as the developer,” Lee said. “Those questions ranged from runoff, also from ingress/egress, how they’re going to access the property and also what type of development is it going to be? What type of structures are going to be established on the property?”

Lee said there were concerns about the site from one nearby property owner, but believes those have been addressed.

“So the planning commission asked Mr. Campbell to bring us a sort of make shift site plan, not a full blown engineer, architect designed site plan,” Lee said. “But basically a drawing of what he wanted to do and a picture of what these multi-family units would look like. Mr. Campbell complied with all the requests for the planning commission, it seems he has addressed the concerns of the property owner that had questions about this and I think that they are more amicable now.”

Developer Cody Campbell said the site would have entry and exit from both Hillcrest Drive and an extension of Wayne Avenue. Campbell said the initial intention is for these units to be rentals.

In other business, Livingston approved the final reading of its hotel/motel tax ordinance. City Attorney John Meadows said to clarify, this ordinance establishes the taxation of short term rental, it does not alter the city codes.

Livingston will collect four percent of the annual revenue from places that offer lodging. Meadows said Air BnB’s and other short-term lodging will need to get a business license, and the tax applies to any lodging operating prior to a tax being set.