Two issues of zoning for businesses in the Marcus Bottom neighborhood are headed to appeal.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen will hear from a property owner who says selling beer from her store in a residential area should be allowed.

The Zoning Board of Appeals will decide next month if a towing company can continue to operate from the location it has used for 12 years. They will also look at a request to allow a drive-through at a convenience store proposed for Marcus Bottom.

In the second matter, J&B Towing owner James Buie filed an appeal after being told that he can’t have a tow truck shop on the property at Bowmar Avenue and Halls Ferry Road. Buie is asking for a review of the decision made by zoning administrator Dalton McCarty and for a special exception to expand his business.

The Zoning Board will hear the request at 5 p.m. Aug. 2 at City Hall Annex.

McCarty said Buie has been operating under a license for 1801 Poplar St. and cannot continue to have tow trucks and wrecked vehicles on the corner lot, which is not under that permit.

“He just doesn’t have the proper license to operate the towing business in that zone,” McCarty said.

McCarty said the business license issued to J&B Towing for Poplar Street cannot be transferred to a new address; instead, a new permit for the site would be required.

The existing zoning designation for 1406 and 1408 Bowmar Ave. is zoned C-1, light retail and neighborhood commercial businesses. McCarty says a towing company can operate in a C-4 zone only by special exception or in an industrial zone.

Buie has also moved several of the trucks and equipment from the lot at Bowmar Avenue and Halls Ferry Road to a vacant lot around the corner, on Yerger Street.

In his application to the Zoning Board, Buie said he has been at the site for 12 years and that the permit should be transferred.

In the case of the property owner’s appeal to allow beer to be sold, Alma Cash, owner of a store at 1720 Military Ave., filed an appeal after her request to have the property rezoned for commercial use was turned down by the Zoning Board. The City Board can uphold, overturn or amend that decision and will hear her request at 10 a.m. on Aug. 10 at City Hall Annex.

City officials gave no indication Monday how they planed to vote on the request and said they had little knowledge of the case.

Cash, of Hahnville, La., has owned the property since the mid-1980s and leased the shop to Patrick Granberry, 2619 Roosevelt Ave. Granberry had sold beer at the shop until 2002 when, according to city records, his beer permit expired.

Granberry said a mistake made by the city caused the lapse and that he should be allowed to resume selling beer.

The business is in a residential zone and has been allowed to continue to operate because it was grandfathered in, meaning it existed before zoning laws stipulated what type of businesses could operate there.

In denying Cash’s petition to rezone the property for commercial business, which would have permitted the sell of alcohol, Zoning Board members said there had been no substantial changes to the neighborhood that warranted the change. They also pointed out that since the store was open, most of the shops in that area have closed because of lack of business and that the shop can continue to operate as it is today just without alcohol.

In the newest zoning request, property owner Alvin Sanders will ask the Zoning Board to recommend an amendment to the ordinance to allow a drive-through at a convenience store. The store he is proposing is at 2618 Halls Ferry Road adjacent to the former KFC that closed this month.

If the board makes the recommendation, the proposed amendment would be sent to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for action.

In other matters, the city board: