It's back to the drawing board for the Mount Pleasant Planning Commission.
In a special joint session Thursday night, the Mount Pleasant City Commission gave more of their input to the planning commission on any possible changes to an amendment which would allow for more student housing.
While no votes were taken, much of the discussion focused on the city commission's and residents' opposition against the planning commission's recommended Open Space Communities Amendment to the Zoning Ordinance Act.
Commissioners debated the pros and cons of rezoning the land at the southwest corner of Broomfield and Crawford roads. Currently, the land is zoned as planned residential housing, or M-1, where no more than two non-related people can live in the same dwelling.
If the zoning ordinance is amended, certain portions of the land could be zoned as student housing, or M-2, allowing more than two non-related people to live together.
The issue now goes back to the planning commission for more review.
Planning Commissioner Todd Olivieri said many residents' complaints of more possible student housing come from people nowhere near Broomfield and Crawford roads.
"The comments come from people far away who are not affected by noise or traffic. I think that property is really far out. It's off on its own section of land. This doesn't abut anybody," Olivieri said.
"If that's not a good place to put M-2, where on God's green earth are you going to put it?," he asked.
Mayor Mike Pittsley said the city commission is not objecting to M-2 housing overall, but is concerned about the concentrated numbers of people found there.
"We'd rather see people spread out rather than in one area," Pittsley said.
He said the city has had behavioral problems stemming from housing with concentrations of students in a small area.
However, student housing behind Elias Brothers Big Boy Restaurant, 1623 S. Mission St., and Wendy's, 1619 Mission St., do not pose problems, Pittsley said. Therefore, "There is not cut and dry answers" to zoning changes, he said.
City Commissioner Gerald Cassel said he is "appalled" at some of the residents in Mount Pleasant who do not want students near them.
"If we addressed the same amount of people, such as blacks and Hispanics, the same way as we do students, we'd be in a deep amount of trouble," he said.
Cassel said he has heard "people who profess to be professors and teachers who said 'We don't want students in our community.'
"I live two blocks from a large complex of students, and I've lived there for 30 years. Students in large apartment complexes have better behavior than those in houses," Cassel said.
"Students don't necessarily have to live only in M-2 housing," City Commissioner Cynthia Bradley said. "They can live in M-1, lower density housing and they do that now. Personally, I'm not a big fan of additional student housing. We have a lot of it now."
Planning Commissioner Jim Joy said the planning commission had been in favor of the M-2 rezoning, but will review the ordinance once again after receiving the city commission's input Thursday.
"We've been instructed to look at the M-1 and the M-2, so as of right now it's all on hold," Joy said. "We'll go back to the board and decide next month."
Joy said the planning commission will discuss the ordinance in their December meeting. Joy and City Planner Tony Kulick both said the city commissioners should have the reviewed zoning ordinance sometime in January.