Former children’s home owners ask planning commission to again consider special exception

NATCHEZ — An attorney for New Hope Missionary Baptist Church is asking the city’s planning commission to rehear the special exception request of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church to re-establish the non-conforming use of the property at 806 N. Union St. as a children’s home.

At a hearing before the planning commission on June 6, a request to deny a special exception to operate the property as a children’s home ended in a tie vote. Because the motion did not carry a majority of members, it failed.

Frankie Legaux, city planner, said an attorney for New Hope asked if anything more could be done before the planning commission about the issue.

“According to our attorney (city attorney Jack Lazarus), they can make a one-time request to re-hear it, but there is only going to be a vote tonight — yes or no. The planning commission cannot hear the issue tonight,” she said.

If the commission votes to re-hear the request for a special exception to operate the facility as a children’s home, Legaux said such a hearing would have to be scheduled, properly advertised in legal notices and letters would be sent to surrounding property owners.

The building served as an orphanage from the time it was built in 1950 until it stopped housing children in 2009, when the focus shifted from housing children at the Natchez Children’s Home to placing them in foster homes.

The building is now owned by New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, which at one time planned to use the facility as a school.

Dr. Tina Bruce leased the building and used it as a crisis stabilization unit for troubled children until January 2023. A number of incidents at the facility concerned neighbors, who questioned whether the unit was authorized to operate there. The facility closed shortly after it was discovered Bruce did not apply for nor was she granted the proper approval for operating that type of facility.

Legaux said she has received approximately 60 letters from nearby residents in opposition to operating the facility as a children’s home.

Also on the commission’s agenda for Thursday:

Jennifer M. Kelly, 311 S. Commerce St., has requested a variance to the distance requirement for short-term rentals and bed and breakfast establishments.
James T. and Sharon T. West, 403 Dr. M.L. King Jr. St., has requested a special exception for an event facility.
The commission meets at 5:15 p.m. Thursday at 115 S. Pearl St. in the Council Chambers.

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