Planning Board balks at townhomes on Selma’s outskirts

SELMA — The Planning Board in June frowned on a request to build townhouses on the outskirts of town.

Board members cared little for plans to build scores of townhomes on 17 acres on Lizzie Mill Road. It didn’t help that the would-be developers weren’t on hand for the meeting.

“I was hoping the applicant would make it here tonight,” said Town Clerk Dalton Larsen-Batten. “They were a father and son looking to develop their piece of land off of Lizzie Mill Road.”

Specifically, the applicants want the Town Council to rezone their 17 acres for transitional residential, or TR, the only zoning category in Selma that allows multifamily housing. Currently, the land, which is outside the town but within its planning jurisdiction, is zoned R-20, which allows single-family homes on lots of 20,000 square feet.

At eight units per acre on 17 acres, the development could boast up to 136 units, Larsen-Batten noted. “It’s a lot of units,” he said, though the number could fall based on soil suitability and other factors.

Planning Board member Susan Sult said townhomes clashed with Selma’s long-term vision for the land. “I will point out objective 12.1 of the 2040 land-use plan is to … discourage high-density development in outlying areas of the extraterritorial jurisdiction,” she said.

Larsen-Batten did note that the townhomes would be next door to high-density housing. “That’s a mobile home park, and it is annexed into the town,” he said.

But in Sult’s view, being next door to a trailer park did the townhome request no favors. “There’s already a large police presence in that area due to drugs,” she said.

“There are a lot of things that would have to go in place if they really wanted to pursue this,” Sult added. “They would have to build in the streets. And with Lizzie Mill Road being rural, it’s got no sidewalks, it’s got no shoulders on the road.”

Sult recalled a similar in-town rezoning request last fall. The council said no to that one. “So my question is, if the town of Selma residents didn’t want that result, then why would the ETJ residents want this type of result, especially if it’s inconsistent with the objective 12.1?” she asked. “I really think it’s a bad idea.”

The rest of the Planning Board agreed and voted to recommend that the Town Council deny the rezoning.

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