To the best of my knowledge, there is not one RV park adjacent to a residential area in any other town or city in Mississippi — not one!

Yet our own zoning and planning commission has been asked to consider a zoning ordinance change, a text amendment, that will allow RV parks to be located inside our city limits in areas currently zoned B-2. Land zoned B-2 is designated “… to provide for businesses located on major thoroughfares and provide goods and services to residents of the community.”

The last portion of the B-2 designation states “… and protect abutting residential areas from the traffic and visual impacts associated with commercial activity.”

An RV park does not  benefit the residents of the community any more inside the city limits and adjacent to residential areas than it would just outside our city limits.

Since Natchez is certainly one of the three most beautiful and historically significant cities in the South, our zoning and planning commission might inquire as to just how many RV parks one might find in or near residential areas in Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga. Even “RV resorts” around Disney World and other major tourist meccas, as well as those in which retirees live permanently in their RVs, are located well away from centers of activity.

Some of these parks have swimming pools, perhaps a tennis court, or even a club house. Such parks then are called “resorts.”

According to a resident of one such park who is the brother of a Natchezian, many such parks, country-wide, are doing poorly and are on the block to be sold. Do we want such parks adjacent to our residential neighborhoods which, after they are sold a time or two, likely could become run down eyesores conducive to highly undesirable activities?

Natchezians, we need to let our aldermen know that we are against changing zone B-2 to allow for RV parks or resorts within our city limits.

The public needs to know that the proposed text amendment, if passed, could apply to every piece of land presently zoned B-2.

This would expose each such property, regardless of its proximity to residential areas throughout Natchez, to the possibility that RV parks  will move in, be sold or fail, and degrade into unattractive and unwanted situations.

We have a beautiful, but small city in which we live.

This is not about just the historic section; this can adversely effect all of Natchez. One or two park failures in a town our size will be a blight to our neighborhoods.

Property values will suffer, and that is one thing no one in Natchez can afford right now, particularly in this economy.

Please contact the planning and zoning commission before they meet Thursday, and the board of aldermen before their meeting on Nov. 25, advising them of your concern and opposition to B-2 zone changes allowing RV parks/resorts in the City of Natchez.

Chick Graning

Natchez resident