The Monroe County Board of Commissioners voted March 13 to reinstate three rezoning petitions and accept the Planning Commission’s public hearing date of March 18.

Dave Schilling of the county legal department told commissioners state law requires the Plan Commission to hold a public hearing within 60 days after a rezoning is proposed, and that it was unclear from the record whether the petitions were filed Dec. 28 or in January. Schilling said the county’s request is to reinitiate the rezoning requests REZ25-1, REZ25-2 and REZ25-3 and accept the Planning Commission’s March 18 hearing date, which would effectively waive the 60-day requirement in the petitioners’ favor.

A commissioner noted the waiver gives potentially affected landowners extra time to organize and respond, and county staff confirmed notice requirements: the county must provide 10 days’ notice of the hearing and that notices went out in January. Schilling also said the parcel list associated with the rezonings was split into multiple rezoning numbers because the county’s filing program could not accept the entire list in one record.

A motion to reinstate the rezoning requests and accept the March 18 hearing date was moved and seconded, there was no public comment at the work session, and the board approved the motion 3-0. County staff said the hearing will be held March 18 at 5:30 p.m. in the Nat U Hill Room and will also be available via Teams.

The action restarts the public-process timeline for these land-use petitions; the Planning Commission will hold the public hearing on March 18 where members of the public may speak.