Meek updates board

An update provided by Panola County Land Development building official Chad Meek to the Board of Supervisors this week shows 78 new residential dwellings have been permitted in the county since Jan. 1.

Meek told supervisors his office has approved applications for 43 new conventional “stick built” homes and 35 manufactured homes.

All new residential housing that is built, or placed, outside the corporate limits of the City of Batesville and the Towns of Sardis, Como, Pope, Courtland, and Crenshaw must be permitted through the county’s Land Development Office.

Meek’s office checks construction applications to ensure that water, sewer, and electric codes are followed, and that houses are built, or manufactured houses located, legally within the lot size and setback guidelines.

Besides new construction, Meek’s office is also charged with overseeing applications for rehab and addition projects, and county ordinances also address parameters for those projects.

Also at Monday’s meeting at the Batesville Courthouse, the supervisors unanimously overturned a decision by the county’s Planning Commission,  which last month denied an application from Brian Bain to build and operate a mini-storage facility at 16371 Hwy. 315 outside Sardis.

The property, located at the corner of Earnest Bacon Rd., and Hwy. 315, was denied a special exception by the Planning Commission. Supervisors questioned Meek about what basis the commissioners used to deny the application, noting that “a couple of people saying they don’t want something shouldn’t stand in the way of progress.”

Meek told the board he also didn’t understand the commission’s decision because the only opposition was from a person who said traffic might increase on the highway. The supervisors overturned the decision quickly when Meek said the proposed project seemed to be within reasonable guidelines, and no one against the construction of a mini-storage facility was present.