NATCHEZ — Fat Mama’s and the Natchez Planning Commission butted heads over the almost complete restaurant project Tuesday morning.

At the Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting, Fat Mama’s representatives were seeking a certificate of occupancy OK from the board.

Representatives from the planning commission were on hand to express concerns over the certificate.

They said they had asked Fat Mama’s representatives to do three things in their project.

First, Fat Mamas’ had cut two curb cut outs on the Washington Street side of their property to allow access.

However, a portion of that property was supposed to be green space, as per previous requests.

By allowing customers to gain entrance from the Washington Street side, they would be traveling through the green space, which is currently asphalt, to reach parking spaces.

The planning commission has requested that Fat Mama’s place two trees in front of each curb cut, a total of four trees.

This would inhibit access, City Planner John Lewis said.

Also, the planning commission requested that all the asphalt between the parking spaces next to the building and Washington Street be torn up to be converted to green space.

Finally, Lewis said the parking spaces on the Washington Street side all have the concrete buffers so cars can only pull up so far.

However, the last two parking spaces closest to the residential property next door have no buffers, Lewis said.

This again would allow access to the building that is intrusive and unnecessary.

Lewis said the planning commission has requested those spaces be closed off with a chain.

Lewis told the board of aldermen the commission was leery of granting a certificate of occupancy, for fear that Fat Mama’s would abandon the three requests because they would have everything they need to move forward with business operations.

Mayor Jake Middleton said a compromise needed to be struck.

“Everybody’s got to give and take a little to get this project going,” he said.

A motion was made for the board of aldermen to grant the certificate of occupancy to Fat Mama’s under the condition that a compromise is made between the planning commission and the business.

The compromise will be discussed during a 9:30 meeting today in the conference room at City Hall.

The motion was approved by the board.

In other business:

4 The Mayor’s Youth Council asked for the board’s blessing to have their Community Day on the bluff Aug. 9.

4Middleton gave a proclamation in honor of Johnny Franklin’s 32 years of service at the Natchez Fire Department.

4 Darrell White, director of the Natchez Association for the Preservation of African American Culture museum, asked for the city’s help in watering the 200 crepe myrtles planted along St. Catherine Street.

“I think we can probably get together and work on a plan for that,” Middleton said.

4City Attorney Everett Sanders made a motion to give Middleton approval to sign a joint resolution between the Adams County Board of Supervisors and the Adams County Sheriff’s Office to reauthorize the metro narcotics unit.

The motion was approved by the board.

4 City Clerk Donnie Holloway asked the board for authorization to get bids to borrow $1.3 million for a tax anticipation loan.

Holloway said this is something the city has done for the past four years.

4 Police Chief Mike Mullins said he will now make it mandatory for his parole officers to get out of their cars and patrol on foot for 10 minutes every hour. Shutting the engine off for this amount of time by the patrol officers will save the department $3,000 a month.