The town of Tyrone was in Fayette County Superior Court recently to defend a lawsuit brought by citizens in their effort to overturn the 2012 inclusion of guns shops as a conditional use in highway commercial zoning districts. While that effort was unsuccessful, the jury did find that an ethics violation had occurred.
Tyrone Mayor Eric Dial said the jury was asked by Judge Tommy Hankinson to consider two questions: Did former Planning Commissioner Chris Wigginton violate the ethics ordinance and did his violation impact the council’s decision on the zoning change.
Town attorney Dennis Davenport said the jury looked at the evidence produced by the plaintiffs and saw a violation of the ethics ordinance.
Wigginton served as a member of the Tyrone Planning Commission from 2009-2013 and did receive money from the architect for the gun shop for work he did, Davenport said.
Pertaining to the second question, Dial noted that the jury said the violation did not impact the council’s decision.
“Since they didn’t rule ‘yes’ on both, we won,” Dial said. “The judge said the standard had to be met on both questions.”
Guns shops today can be located in a C-2-zoned (Highway Commercial) area. So what is the status of the gun shop that wanted to locate at Southampton Plaza four years ago?
“They were gone a long time ago,” Dial said. “No one has expressed a desire to come. There is no reason to believe that we’ll see a gun shop in Tyrone.”
An issue that surfaced at the court hearing dealt with the taping of council meetings.
Dial maintained that, since his election to the council in 2007 and with his service beginning in January 2008 there have been no video recordings made of council meetings. There was, however, a time prior to 2008 when council meetings were videoed. The town clerk does make audio tapes of meetings.
Groundwork for the suit by some Southampton subdivision residents was laid when the Town Council in April 2012 approved gun shops as a conditional use in C-2 zoning districts such as the one situated adjacent to Southampton subdivision where a gun store and indoor shooting range had been proposed for the Southampton Plaza shopping center on Ga. Highway 74.
The Tyrone Town Council in March 2012 changed the designation of commercial districts that complied with the re-working of the town’s zoning ordinance that began more than three years earlier and was adopted in October 2011. The old PUD (Planned Unit Development) category was transitioned into the new C-2 designation. That designation covered the commercial district along Hwy. 74 in the vicinity of Carriage Oaks Drive. The vote on the reclassification was unanimous and was met with no public opposition.
The same could not be said for another agenda item, one where guns shops were proposed as a conditional use in the C-2 zoning district. Guns shops had previously not been included in any zoning district category, resulting in the need to include them in some zoning category. It was that item that drew significant public comment, with 10 people speaking in favor of the proposal and 18 others opposed.
A large percentage of those opposed to the measure included residents of the nearby Southampton subdivision. Nearly all said their were gun advocates or gun owners and many noted that they had military or law enforcement experience. And nearly all said they supported the idea of having a local gun shop. The problem, they said, was with the intended location on a vacant piece of property directly south of Partners Pizza.
