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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor

After 195 residents visited the polls to cast their vote in a special election, the proposed zoning map for the Harpersville-Vincent zoning beat will not go into effect and properties within the unincorporated area will remain unzoned.

During the special election, which was only open to residents of the Harpersville-Vincent zoning beat in unincorporated Shelby County, 115 residents voted against zoning regulations with 79 voting yes. A single ballot was marked as under which indicates that an entry was not selected.

“I was pleased with the amount of people that came out to vote,” said Leigh Hunt, a resident of the beat who petitioned for zoning. “But I was disappointed with the result. I feel like there was a lot of misunderstanding on exactly what zoning did and would do even up until the day the election was going on. I feel like if everyone had understood it thoroughly and this was still the outcome that we got then that would be a little easier to swallow.”

If residents had voted yes in the election, the proposed map would have gone into effect and created zoning for the entirety of the Harpersville-Vincent zoning beat. If the beat were zoned, any individual or a company in the beat would have had to go before the planning commission to change the zoning of their property. Since the zoning map and regulations were not approved by voters, the entire beat will remain unzoned.

The zoning map for the Harpersville-Vincent zoning beat was created after a petition was delivered on April 29 by Hunt and a group of other concerned residents. The signed petitions were delivered to the Shelby County probate court where they were subsequently signed by Judge Allison Boyd.

Shelby County is one of the few counties that allows zoning in unincorporated areas and after the county received valid petitions from registered voters and property owners, it worked to develop the proposed zoning map.

The entire mapping zone that was under consideration consists of 301 registered voters with a total of 54,000 acres or 85 square miles and features parts of Vincent, Westover, Harpersville and Wilsonville. The unincorporated areas consist of 28,000 acres or 44 square miles.

After gathering public feedback and input at two meetings on June 20 and two meetings on June 25, the Shelby County Planning Commission collected feedback one last time before voting on a finalized drawing on July 15. That drawing was then subsequently approved by the Shelby County Commission during a meeting on July 22 before ultimately going before residents in the election.

The initial draft of the zoning map came about due to the petitions from residents who were concerned about land uses and regulations for new developments in the beat—particularly for a controversial property that was the location for an inmate transitional facility that was run by the organization Breakaway Pointe.

If the zoning map had been approved by residents, it would have prevented the owners of the property from engaging in utilizing the property for anything other than a single family dwelling without going before the planning commission. Now, after the results of the election, the property will remain unzoned.

Hunt, who has worked with other residents to organize the protest website Stopbreakawaypointe.com and lives directly next to the property, said she will continue to look for other means of preventing the proposed inmate transition facility from being built.

“I’m disappointed in the election, but we’ve got other things in mind to reach our goal of making sure that this prison facility does not come to our area,” Hunt said.

According to a release from the directors of Breakaway Pointe, there are no current plans for the property.

“We will certainly be content with the outcome (of the election),” read the release, ”especially since we have no current plans for the use of the flea market property.”