Royston Reviewing City Ordinances

The City of Royston is beginning a review of its ordinances with a view towards making any needed updates or changes.

At their regular meeting last week, the City Council and Mayor David Jordan received an update on the process from City attorney Andrea Grant.

Grant said she has begun looking at the Zoning Ordinance and recommended the city allow her to begin reviewing two main sections.

“We have conditional use requirements and definitions in general, to proceed with multi- family residential R2 uses, Highway Business HB and Industrial M1 and M2,” she said. “Off the top of my head, there are some ways that we can strengthen and clarify those sections.”

But Councilman Lee Strickland objected, saying he did not recall the council asking for the entire City Code of Ordinances be reviewed.

“I thought we had only asked you all to look into the alcohol ordinance,” he said. “I’m surprised you brought it up because I thought it was a dead issue.”

Strickland said he was concerned about the amount Grant might charge the city for her time.

“I just don’t think we have that in the budget right now,” he said.

Mayor Jordan said he asked Grant to look into the entire code book because it had not been updated or reviewed since 2008.

“I asked Andrea to look into our ordinances because we have a lot of dead wood in there,” he told the council. “We have codes in there that don’t even apply anymore and others that need to be updated so we’re in compliance with state law. For example, we found out that the fees for our qualifying were in conflict with state law and we had to raise them at our last meeting. I asked her to start with zoning because those are the main issues we often come across.”

After more discussion, the council voted to allow Grant and City Staff to begin a review of the zoning ordinance and the rest of the code book.