Plans to revise Perryville’s zoning map are moving forward, as a committee consisting of three council members and Mayor Anne Sleet will meet next week with Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Director Steve Hunter.

The committee — consisting of council members Brian Caldwell, Paul Webb and Jerry Houck — will meet with Sleet and Hunter at 4 p.m. Tuesday to begin looking at the map of the city. The goal is to make sure the map’s zones reflect how the city actually looks.

“We’re going to mark these maps up generically. There’s so many obvious problems,” Hunter said. “That’s a real easy clean up.”

Council members discussed whether to make the committee larger to include community members, but decided it would be more manageable if it remained small.

After they review the maps, they will begin speaking to community members about their properties. Hunter said property owners have to give approval before their property can change zones.

Hunter said changing the map will not cost the city or the residents anything and will not impact their taxes, despite rumors to the contrary.

Open-house-style public viewings of the proposed changes will be held in February. Input at that stage will help clean up the map further, Hunter said.

Council member Julie Clay said there might be better reception if people know they get to “determine their own fates, so to speak.”

In other business, the council saw a draft of a new abandoned urban property ordinance from City Attorney Winfield Frankel. One of the changes includes establishing an appeals process. Appeals would first be handled by a committee consisting of Mayor Sleet, Fire Chief Anthony Young, Police Chief Parker Hatter and two community members, to be approved by council. 

“I think it would give legitimacy to have community members on the committee,” Frankel said.

If a further appeal is made, the case would go before the council.

Council members are expected to have a first reading of the ordinance in February.

The council also heard from Hal Goode, vice president of the Economic Development Partnership, and Jennifer Kirchner, executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. The council was introduced to Myrna Miller, interim director of the Chamber of Commerce, and Rick Waldon, chair of the Chamber of Commerce board. Goode said he was glad the city had agreed to join the EDP board.