A full-service restaurant, a veterinary clinic without an outside run and offices of all types could be built on property at the entrance to Lake Caroline neighborhood.
The Madison County Board of Supervisors unanimously clarified and confirmed during its March 16 meeting that about 55 acres of usable property, located on the east side of Caroline Boulevard and north of Stribling Road, is zoned as General Commercial District (C-1).
The board’s action cleared up questions about what could be legally built along the neighborhood’s main entrance corridor.
The property in question includes the site where a developer planned to build a gas station and convenience store, which Lake Caroline homeowners protested. The developer withdrew the plans for what was named Stribling Market in April 2024.
Madison County rewrote its zoning ordinance in 2019 and the commercial designation for Lake Caroline’s entrance corridor did not make it into the new ordinance, an oversight that Andy Clark, Madison County planning and zoning attorney, told the supervisors was unintentional.
Allison Balducci, president of the Lake Caroline Owners Association, said the association is “neutral” on the zoning clarification.
The association had 10 days after the meeting to file an appeal in Madison County Circuit Court but did not.
The Madison County Zoning Ordinance lists these examples of land uses permitted outright under C-1: commercial uses in which services performed and merchandise offered for sale are conducted or displayed within fully enclosed buildings, except for the display of small articles (i.e., those that can generally be hand-carried by one or two persons) outside the commercial use; offices of all types; full-service restaurants, excluding fast-food restaurants; veterinary clinics and pet shops, excluding outside runs; any other use which the Board of Supervisors determine to be of the same character and nature as those specifically permitted; and temporary buildings, the use of which is not to exceed six months.
The zoning ordinance lists these examples as select conditional uses under C-1: public/quasi-public facilities, fast food restaurants, food product carry-out, veterinary clinics and pet shops, including outside runs; convenience stores; any retail building or service establishment which the Board determines to be of the same character and nature as those specifically allowed but not to include those uses which are first permitted in C-2 Highway Commercial districts.
A select conditional use requires a public hearing be held, said Scott Weeks, Madison County zoning administrator.
Steve M. Hendrix, an attorney with Butler Snow, requested clarification and confirmation of the commercial zoning designation of property within the Lake Caroline Planned Unit Development (PUD).
Hendrix wrote in a letter dated July 29, 2025, that was included in the supervisor’s packet of information:
“On behalf of Lake Caroline Inc., we are writing to request clarification and confirmation of the commercial zoning designation of certain property within the Lake Caroline PUD (the “Subject Property”). The Subject Property consists of approximately 132 acres currently owned by Lake Caroline, Inc.,
Nick & Alice LLC, JoBeck Properties LLC, and Tri P Holdings LLC. The Subject Property is further described in the legal descriptions and depiction attached hereto. The Subject Property consists of approximately 132 acres currently owned by Lake Caroline, Inc., Nick & Alice LLC, JoBeck Properties LLC, and Tri P Holdings LLC. The Subject Property is further described in the legal descriptions and depiction attached hereto. Given the recent questions about the zoning classification of this area, we request clarification and confirmation that the Subject Property is designated as C-1, consistent with the Master Plan as previously approved and confirmed by the County in 2008.”
Hendrix, a Lake Caroline resident, spoke during the supervisors’ meeting and reiterated that the matter was not a rezoning issue but clarification that the property was designated as .
Bill Hardin, a Lake Caroline resident and former zoning administrator for the city of Jackson, said the county’s 2019 zoning ordinance required a formal rezoning process for property and the board ignored that.
Mark Jordan, president of Lake Caroline Inc., who has overseen Lake Caroline since 1998, said the development of approximately 6,000 residents was always intended as a mixed-use development.
The county erred when it did not include a definition of a PUD in the 2019 zoning ordinance, he said. “But the cloud was left behind of what is allowed under PUD commercial.”
