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SNILD OK’s rezoning legislation for ‘consistency’
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Posted on Nov 13 2019
The Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation met yesterday and discussed only one legislation that rezones a lot in Dandan for “consistency.”
The delegation unanimously passed on first and final reading delegation chair Rep. John Paul Sablan’s (R-Saipan) House Local Bill 21-33.
The legislation, which was drafted by the Commonwealth Zoning Board but introduced as a bill by Sablan, sought to rezone a lot along Airport Road, near the old Shell gas station, from village commercial to mixed commercial.
According to Sablan, the Zoning office conducted public hearings for the rezoning as well as gained approval of the Zoning board.
“That lot is zoned right now as village commercial. What this legislation seeks to do is to make it consistent with the surrounding areas,” he said, adding that the surrounding lots had been rezoned to mixed commercial through previously enacted local laws.
“I am glad that the Zoning office took the initiative to work on the appeal of the landowner so that it doesn’t look like [the area] is spot zoned,” he said.
Spot zoning is the act of zoning a specific plot of land within a larger zoned area that is inconsistent with its neighboring plots.
“The surrounding areas from this specific lot are actually all mixed commercial already—this is the only lot that is zoned otherwise,” Sablan said.
HLB 21-33 now heads to the Governor’s Office for review and enactment.
