Americus City Council June 5, 2025 meeting.

The Americus City Council heard more information concerning the proposed rezoning of the property at 502 South Lee Street from residential to institutional. The property was formerly occupied by Central Baptist Church. The new owner, Whole Truth International Ministries, plans to use the property as a group home.

Citizens raised several objections to the rezoning proposal during a public hearing. City attorney Jimmy Skipper gave the first objection, which was that the zoning Board that recommended the rezoning request was not qualified. The City of Americus requires members of the Zoning Board to be registered voters in the city. The city manager, a member of the Zoning Board, is not a resident. Skipper gave his opinion that it was not an objection.

The second objection made during the public hearing was that the Planning and Zoning committee’s recommendation was only for tract one to be rezoned, and did not include tracts two and three, which are also owned by the ministry. The building the ministry plans to use for the group home is on tract one. Skipper stated that objection did limit the City Council. “Technically, you’re only authorized to consider the rezoning as to the tract one, the 2.978 acres.” The original rezoning ordinance included all three tracts. Skipper drafted an amendment that only tract one would be included.

Chief building official Roger Willis assured City Council that Whole Truth International Ministries was only concerned with rezoning the property that had the building.

Skipper provided information on the zoning of the surrounding properties, including those on the East side of South Lee Street past Lee Street Methodist Church which were zoned institutional. Council Member Charles Christmas questioned Skipper about spot zoning, the practice of rezoning a property for a radically different use than those around it. Skipper stated that spot zoning was not exactly banned. “The law doesn’t say spot zoning is illegal. What the law says is it’s not a good idea with respect to zoning, because the whole theory about zoning is to keep like uses together.”

Once a property is rezoned, whatever is authorized in that new district can be put on that property. Institutional properties have 26 possible uses in the City. Skipper stressed that if the Council granted the rezoning request, each of those uses would be permissible unless they attached conditions to the rezoning.

Another requirement Whole Truth International Ministries will need to meet for a group personal care home is a license, which is required by the State and City ordinance. Skipper gave acquiring a license within a set time as a potential condition for rezoning the property. “If that licensure did not occur within the time frame in your rezoning ordinance, let’s assume 18 months for example, then the rezoning basically never happened.”

While there have been applications for family personal care homes in the city, Willis stated that no one had applied for a group home license before. The city currently has no designated zoning for a child caring institution. The City Council has the option to make it an allowable use in institutional zoning. Willis said he would reach out to Senior Pastor George Monts to find out if that was what Whole Truth International Ministry was planning to do with the property.

Christmas said that Monts’ plans were not very clear. Skipper also addressed the lack of clarity. “From a legal standpoint, we don’t know what is being proposed in any exact way.”Skipper was unsure whether they could rezone something for a use that, at the time of rezoning, was not yet allowed, though he did state there could be options to make it work.

Monts had previously argued that past uses of the building should allow them to use it for a group home, since they were not residential uses. Willis gave the specific circumstances of each use. “There was a doctor’s office there, and that was temporary during the tornado.” DFCS also occupied the building. “The State can go and do something, and we have no control. The zoning doesn’t apply to them.”

Both those for the rezoning and against it have the right to appeal City Council’s decision.