Plan Director presents annual report to Council
MARSHALL COUNTY — Plan Director Ty adley presented his department’s 2020 annual Report to the County Council on Monday.
The report included statistics from the 2020 year for the County Plan Commission and Board of Zoning appeals (BZA).
The report stated that “2020 was a year of great accomplishment for Marshall County both through the Planning Commission and BZA, but also as a whole County. The Department has experienced the new records in permit numbers with a slight decrease in valuation in permits.”
It went on to say that there were 997 permits issued in comparison to the 947 issued in 2019. The previous record of 749 was set in 2018. In 2020, there was valuation of $72,729,400 which is less than 2019 when the valuation was $73,197,291. In 2018, the valuation was $68,416,914.
“Given everything that had occurred during 2020, many residents found ways to continue their investment in Marshall County. The vast majority of these investments came in the form of new accessory buildings, conventional homes, and small commercial buildings,” states the report.
Adley stated that the
15-year comparison for the county is showing a positive trend with 2020 having 997 permits as the high and 2011 as the lowest number of permits at 317. “The increase in the number of permits did go up but the valuation of permits decreased from $73,197,291 in 2019 to $72,729,400 in 2020,” the report states. There was a total of 64 cases heard by the BZA in 2020 while in 2019 there was 54 cases heard. According to the report, the breakdown of cases in 2020 included 15 Special Use, 28 Variance of Development Standards, nine Variance of Use, and one Administrative Appeals. “That continuing jump kind of leads us to believe that there’s some amendments that need to take place. If somebody’s constantly coming in for the same thing we either need to look to amend it or begin striking it down,” said Adley. As far as Plan Commission cases, there was an increase of two. In 2019 there was 15 cases to 2020’s 17 cases. For violations, there was a total of 29 cases. Of those cases, 18 were completed, four were with attorney, six have fines, and one was a warning. “The main violations are waste and debris on properties. Many feel their use of a property does not affect the neighborhood. We have properties which have been abandoned and are up for tax sale. We are limited on the legal actions on properties up for tax sale. It takes years to have structures removed,” stated the report.