Designers of a Wisconsin Avenue apartment complex asking for a smaller-than-required parking area will have to take their case to the next level.

Representatives of Warren-Yazoo Mental Health Service, won three OKs from Vicksburg Board of Zoning Appeals Tuesday, but four are required.

Chairman Tim Fagerburg said that means a decision in the matter must be made by the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen. No date for a decision had been set.

Board members Fred Katzenmeyer, Lonnie Boykins and Casey Fisher voted in favor of the plan. Fagerburg and Jack Burrell dissented.

Warren-Yazoo said the site’s terrain and expected demand for parking should allow the proposed 22 parking spaces to be sufficient. Zoning authorities say the floor plans for the 17 one-bedroom apartments specify 34 parking spaces as a minimum.

In another agenda item, the board unanimously approved a request from owners Cliff and Kilby Whitney of the Knox Home, 2823 Confederate Ave., to use it as a bed-and-breakfast inn. They were also approved to serve meals for special events and run a gift shop. Plans call for the home, near Vicksburg High School, to have up to four rental rooms and four restaurant tables.

Board members and Zoning Administrator Dalton McCarty said the rezoning would make the neighborhood’s zoning more uniform.

Representing Warren Yazoo Mental Health Services, which has other buildings in the area, were Donna Hardy, director of acute services, and Don Brown, executive director. They said the complex would need fewer parking spaces because fewer than half of the tenants it is designed to serve usually have vehicles.

The plan called for a building or parking lot to fill &#8220just about every area of flat spot” of the site, architect Steve Kennedy of Jackson said.

Joe Strickland, a professional surveyor who said he lives near the site, spoke against the plan, saying it would set &#8220a terrible precedent for every piece of property that’s left on Wisconsin Avenue.”

&#8220What’s the next guy going to do?” Strickland asked.

The complex is to be occupied by people who have received treatment through the mental health service, Hardy said. The complex is to be operated by the service, but is not a treatment center and its residents would live there independently and for indefinite lengths of time, Hardy added.

The complex would be built with a $1.23 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and would remain a HUD property, Hardy said. Plans for it have been in the works for about two years, including about a six-month setback due to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

Warren-Yazoo representatives have 10 days to file to be placed on an agenda for a city board meeting.