A public hearing on a proposed RV park on U.S. 61 South will be during a Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting on March 16, the board decided on Tuesday in the absence of Mayor Laurence Leyens.

Landowners Billy Patton and his brother, Mike, approached the Vicksburg Zoning Board on Feb. 3 seeking a special exception to operate an RV park on 7.85 acres at 5800 U.S. 61 South for development, but the lay board declined to vary from a local ordinance requiring RV parks encompass a minimum of 10 acres. The property is located next to Rivertown Campground and across from Vicksburg Municipal Airport. 

Zoning Administrator Dalton McCarty said at the zoning board the 10-acre requirement was created in 1996 to ensure parks would have ample green space, as well as amenities common to RV parks, such as laundry and restroom facilities. 

The Pattons won a special exception from the zoning board to allow a manufactured home already on site to serve as an office for RV and used car sales on the property as long as the sales lot is paved. However, following the meeting the brothers said they had planned for the sales lot to supplement the RV park, and did not anticipate opening a sales lot without the park’s approval.

The RV park the Pattons presented to the zoning board would include approximately 60 RV spaces measuring 60-by-30-feet, which is 10 feet wider and longer than the legal minimum.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com.