Undaunted, Walkers continue to work toward B&B in Ocean Springs

Scott Walker showed the Sun Herald plans Tuesday night to install a sprinkler system in his East Beach home.

He said he believes that system should satisfy the city’s fire safety requirements for a commercial business and qualify him for the permit he needs to run a B&B from his home.

He was turned down last month by the Planning Commission, in part, because the East Beach home did not meet the fire safety requirements under the old B&B law. Commercial businesses are required to have sprinklers.

Walker was at the Board of Aldermen meeting with his wife, Trinity, on Tuesday, even though they weren’t scheduled to meet with aldermen about the Planning Commission ruling until March 7. They were there to listen.

There was a B&B issue on the agenda Tuesday. The city passed a moratorium on all new B&B applications, until they update the old B&B ordinance.

So where does that leave the Walkers?

Scott Walker said they are moving right along with the sprinkler plans. The cost, he said, will be roughly $25,000, and they should be installed by the end of March.

The Walkers had applied for a B&B under the old law. And he said he believes they are grandfathered in with that application and now just need to meet the old sprinkler requirement.

“For one time, the law is on my side,” Walker said with a smile.

In the meantime, the city is rewriting the B&B ordinance making it, among other things, more stringent on the owners to be on site when visitors rent. It also is expected to require some approval by neighbors.

The moratorium is to give the city time to get the new ordinance worked out and on the books (likely mid-April) before they take on new applications. In reality, the Walkers were the last applicants under the old law and there are no new applicants right now.

The Walkers applied for a B&B permit in April last year and, though they passed an early inspection, failed to pass the last one. Permit denied, the city said.

The Walkers’ B&B isn’t a popular idea in the East Beach neighborhood and neighbors have accused them of advertising and running their B&B this past year without a permit.

Attorney Jim Reeves, who has plans to build on East Beach, was at the Tuesday night meeting, too.

He said he questions whether the Walkers are grandfathered in under the old law.

“My understanding is their permit was denied on the sprinkler issue and they would have to re-apply under the new ordinance, with the new language,” Reeves said. “And there’s a moratorium until that is settled.”

The Walkers appealed their permit denial to the Board of Aldermen on March 7.

Scott Walker said they have met “the entire list of criteria and are now going back and adding illuminated exit signs, and an entire sprinkler system shows that we are doing everything the city has asked us to do.”

“The ordinance that was in place when I applied on April 25, 2016, does NOT require neighbors’ input or approval,” he said in a text later.

He said the city can take away a B&B permit at any time if the owners aren’t following the code.

“I also know that the neighbors will let the city know if there are ever more than eight people and four cars at our B&B.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2017 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Undaunted, Walkers continue to work toward B&B in Ocean Springs."