By Robert Sullivan

robert.sullivan@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Three public hearings from Monday’s Rowan County Board of Commissioners’ meeting will be held open through their next meeting to allow the public a full chance to participate.

Typically, public hearings are held entirely within one meeting and anyone who wishes to speak must attend that meeting. For the four hearings opened on Monday however, the public comment period began during that meeting and members of the public will be given another chance to participate during the Dec. 4.

The extra time will be given because notices were not published in the Salisbury Post on time. Notice of public hearings are required by state law to be published once a week for two weeks straight in a “newspaper of general circulation.” The first notice must be published no less than 10 days and no more than 25 days before the hearing. Extending the public hearing period will allow for that state requirement to be fulfilled, according to County Attorney John Dees.

The three hearings that are being left open due to the notices are each concerning rezoning and special-use permits that were applied for.

Joseph Keller applied for a conditional district to create a yard-waste recycling site on a two-acre area in his Enochville property, located in the 5800 block of Wright Road. Keller has contracted with the city of Kannapolis to accept their yard waste for processing and sale of the resulting mulch. The Rowan County Planning Board previously held a courtesy hearing on the request and recommended its approval.

Ricky Paquette is requesting the rezoning of a 1.68-acre portion of his property located in the 200 and 300 blocks of Bee Lake Drive. The property is currently zoned as Manufactured Home Park and Paquette is requesting it be rezoned to Rural Agricultural. County planning staff also noticed two other properties that needed improvement to the zoning and wrapped them into the same petition in order to clean up the lines.

Lea Jaunakais is requesting the rezoning of the 36-acre property that contains Tiger World in order to pave the way for an expansion of the park as well as make it a conforming use with county zoning. Tiger World is planning to add a new entrance on N.C. Highway 152 in order to move away from the current entrance on Cook Road, which is a small unmarked road containing only residences. The park also hopes to add a much larger parking lot and rental spaces for RV parking and other camping usages.

A quasi-judicial hearing regarding the Tiger World camping spots for rent will also be held open until the first December meeting. Although quasi-judicial hearings do not require public notices, the commissioners and planning staff decided to keep the hearing open because it is somewhat reliant on the first Tiger World petition being approved.