Sunday, February 19, 2017

Oconee County Planning Commission To Try Again To Review Ministry College Proposal

Will Need Quorum

The Oconee County Planning Commission tomorrow (Monday) night is to pick up its agenda from last month, when it did not have a quorum, and give consideration to a request to convert a portion of the former Green Hills Golf Course and Country Club in the far east of the county to a ministry college.

The Commission also will review a request from Stonebridge Partners LLC for a rezone of land for a residential subdivision on undeveloped land across from the existing Daniells Plantation subdivision, just east of Butler’s Crossing.

Other agenda items include a request from RWJ Inc. to modify the approved plans for Downs Creek Farm subdivision, now under development on the west side of Daniells Bridge Road.

Watkinsville First Baptist Church is seeking approval of its plans to expand its facilities on a 17.7 acre-tract at Simonton Bridge Road and Norton Road.

And the Commission will review a request for a convenience food store at Bob Godfrey Road and Belmont Road, near the proposed ministry college. The convenience story is not to have fuel pumps.

The Planning Commission meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Courthouse in Watkinsville.

No Quorum

Only six of the 12 members of the Planning Commission showed up for the scheduled meeting on Jan. 17, leaving the body without a quorum and unable to conduct business. A quorum is defined for the Commission as half of the members plus one.

Outline Of Golf Course Visible
(Click To Enlarge)

Green Hills Farms LLC, the current land owner, was seeking a special use to allow the Athens College of Ministry to develop a campus on just more than 100 acres on the agriculturally-zoned land.

The 100-acre-parcel is part of a larger tract of 189 acres in the small triangle of Oconee County on the east side of the Oconee River tucked between Athens-Clarke County and Oglethorpe County. The property has been vacant since 2009.

The special use is only for the western portion of that acreage.

Oconee County currently does not provide either water or sewer to the land to the east of the Oconee River, and the narrative for the development states the college will seek to obtain water from Athens-Clarke County and rely on septic in the short term.

Stonebridge Partners

The Planning Commission agenda for last month did not include the request by Stonebridge Partners LLC for a rezone of the just less than 40 acres east of Butler’s Crossing for the residential subdivision.

That item had been on the Planning Commission’s agenda in November, but, on the request of the owner, the Commission postponed action at that meeting.

The request is for a 35 lot single-family subdivision. The houses would use septic.

The land currently is zoned for Office Institutional Professional Planned Unit Development and Highway Business.

The portion of the property designated for Office Institutional Profession use had been zoned in 1996 for a for a retirement community that was never built.

The acreage currently is wooded.

Other Items

RWJ Inc, owned by Rodney Jones, is seeking to modify the approved plans for Downs Creek Farm subdivision, now under development on the west side of Daniells Bridge Road just south of the bridge over Barber Creek.

The county rezoned 53 acres for the subdivision in January of 2014, with 11 lots.

Subsequently, RWJ Inc. sold two of those lots to David Mulkey, who combined them with adjoining acreage he purchased.

Jones now is seeking to change the rezone so he can build 11 houses on the remaining 33 acres. Three houses already are under construction, according to the planning documents.

The recommendations of the Planning Commission will go to the Board of Commissioners for its March 7 meeting.

1 comment:

Zippity said...

A convenience store without food pumps? This does not make sense. A college on septic? Don't they need some assurance of water first. The planning commission will be busy. Disappointing that the members don't show up.