Council approves rezoning, negotiates Murphey Building variance; tables short-term rental rules

Barnesville’s council navigated multiple land-use items in 2024, approving a rezoning with conditions for a storage facility parcel, granting a negotiated variance for downtown redevelopment, and deferring a proposed short-term rental ordinance.

On multiple dates the council considered a rezoning request by Christi Toney to change 5.05 acres at the Zebulon Street/Railroad Way intersection from R-2 to C-2 for planned truck/boat/RV storage. Staff and council members discussed screening, fencing, ingress/egress, and limitations on overnight parking. After working through stipulations about ingress and vegetative buffering (requested by Councilmember Bill Claxton), the rezoning ordinance included conditions that restrict Zebulon Street access and require landscaping to screen the facility.

Separately, developers seeking to convert the Murphey Building downtown into mixed commercial/residential units debated parking availability and possible leasing of a city lot for resident parking. Nearby business owners objected to reduced on-site parking and expressed safety and loading concerns. Council and the applicant negotiated additional buffering and ingress adjustments before voting on a variance that establishes approved first-floor use changes and related conditions.

At a December public hearing councilors considered proposed short-term rental and bed-and-breakfast text amendments that would allow STRs and B&Bs as conditional uses subject to an application and enforcement framework. After concern from neighbors and debate about enforcement capacity, the council voted to table the STR/B&B ordinances and schedule a workshop for more detailed policy development.

The council asked staff to produce clearer application guidance, to map downtown parking supply, and to explore permit conditions that could mitigate neighborhood impacts.

Next steps: staff to draft clearer permit processes and enforceable conditions, pursue negotiated parking agreements where feasible, and return to council with recommended STR rules after a workshop.