The Oconee County Board of Commissioners has a full agenda for its meeting on Tuesday night, the last meeting of the year.
The Board is scheduled to hold a second hearing and vote on revisions to the county’s Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance that will slightly expand the service area, allow for brew pubs, and relax restrictions on sale of alcohol in University 16 Cinemas in Epps Bridge Centre.
It will hold six zoning hearings, including one for a hotel and an exercise facility with an outdoor swimming pool and pickleball and tennis courts on Plaza Parkway west of Costco.
The Board also will make citizen appointments to the Library Board, the Farmland Preservation Ranking Committee, the Oconee County Board of Health, and the MACORTS Policy Committee.
Forty-seven people have applied for the five openings on the Library Board, including three incumbents seeking reappointment, and three who have been outspoken critics of the Oconee County Library for programs and content the three consider inappropriate for children and young adults.
The Board also is scheduled to approve 44 alcohol license renewals, the same number as a year ago, and review an application for a license for a restaurant called Catch 22 Garage in what was formerly Dickey’s in Butler’s Crossing.
In a reversal from plans discussed in recent meetings, the Board will approve a renewal of its health insurance program for county employees rather than develop a self-insurance program for the county.
Employee Health Insurance
Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell and County Administrator Justin Kirouac had been advocating that the Board move from its traditional health insurance program to self-insurance by the county to hold down costs and to expand the offering for the employees.
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| Commissioners Mark Thomas, Chuck Horton, Daniell, Amrey Harden, Mark Saxon (Left To Right) 11/26/2024 |
At its meeting on Nov. 5, the Board first defeated a motion to table a request that the Board offer a contract to a company to develop such a plan and but then took no action on approving the contract to move the plan forward.
At its agenda-setting meeting on Nov. 26, Daniell reported that the county would be “continuing on with our fully insured method.”
He said that Cigna had originally proposed a 2.1 percent rate increase but then offered an administrative credit of that same amount, “which keeps our premium at the same as it is in the current fiscal year.”
The county will pay $4.6 million for health insurance package, he said, and employees will have the option to purchase dental and vision coverage through the county program.
The rates for dental and vision “all went down as well as long-term disability and life insurance,” Daniell said. “Very good renewal. We'll stay the same on our health (insurance).”
At the Nov. 26 meeting, the Board put the renewal of the contract with Cigna on the consent agenda for approval at the meeting on Tuesday.
Alcohol Ordinance
Following a presentation by County Attorney Daniel Haygood at that Nov. 26 meeting, the Board gave a first reading to and held a hearing on the planned changes to the county’s Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance.
At present, the granting of licenses is administered by County Clerk Holly Stephenson, and the revised ordinance moves that responsibility to the county’s Department of Planning and Code Enforcement.
The proposed expansion of the service area will allow for alcohol sales in the strip shopping center now under construction on Malcom Bridge Road opposite Malcom Bridge Middle School.
The revised service area map creates a service area island at The Village At Malcom Bridge.
The new ordinance allow for brew-pubs, allows for restaurants serving alcohol within grocery stores, and allows restaurants in cinemas to serve alcohol in all theaters in its facility rather than only in restricted ones, as is required in the current ordinance.
Rezones
White Oak Development Partners of Atlanta is asking the county to allow it to rezone a 14.3-acre parcel on Plaza Parkway currently owned by St. Mary’s Highland Hills Inc. from R-3 (Multiple-Family Residential District) to B-2 (Highway Business District).
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| Location Of Hotel, Recreational Facility (Click To Enlarge) |
The property, which abuts SR Loop 10, currently is unoccupied. It was zoned R-3 in 1979. In 2005 St. Mary’s Highland Hills Retirement Community received a conditional use permit to construct and operate a retirement community on the developed part of the property.
The 14.3 acre parcel was separated from the developed acreage when the Georgia Department of Transportation created Plaza Parkway.
White Oak Development Partners is proposing to create two lots, one for a 17,500 square foot hotel and the other for a 72,000 square foot exercise facility with an outdoor pool and pickleball and tennis courts.
Other rezones before the Board include a request by the Elizabeth Price Dolvin Foundation LLC to be allowed it to operate a short-term rental on 56.1 acres on Greensboro Highway (SR 15) just east of Elder Mill Road with an off-site property manager.
The county planning staff has recommended against the request.
Hunter Hargrave is returning to the Commission to ask that it reduce the minimum required rear and side setbacks for the footprint of a storage shed he already has constructed on his 0.6-acre lot at 1230 Oconee Forest Drive.
The Board voted on Nov. 5 against a request by Hargrave to allow an accessory metal building already constructed without permits that is 1,218 square feet in size to remain on the property even though it is in violation of the county’s Unified Development Code (UDC).
Library Board
The Library Board, officially the Oconee County Library Board of Trustees, consists of 12 members, with eight of them appointed by the Oconee County Board of Commissioners. Watkinsville and Bogart each appoint a member. Two are appointed by the Oconee County Board of Education.
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| Haygood, Kirouac, Explaining Alcohol Ordinance Changes 11/26/2024 |
The terms for Fred Lutz, Daphne Norton, Chair Mark Campbell, and Angela Moss-Hill, appointed by the Board of Commissioners, expire at the end of this year.
Laura French resigned from the Board between the July and October Board meetings. Her term expires at the end of 2026.
At the Oct. 14 meeting of the Board, Campbell announced that he is not eligible for reappointment, since members can serve only two-five year terms.
The Board elected Rubielen Norris, currently serving as vice-chair, to replace Campbell as chair, and Daphne Norton as vice-chair. It re-elected Fred Lutz as recording secretary.
Norton, Lutz, and Board Member Angela Moss-Hill applied for reappointment by the Nov. 8 deadline.
Other applicants for the five openings include Stephen Aleshire and Victoria Cruz, who have filed requests for reconsideration with the Library Board for reclassification of books due to their sexual content.
Julie Mauck, who has headed the local chapter of Moms for Liberty and has been a critic of programming at the Oconee County Library, also has applied for appointment.
Other applicants include Penny Mills, who has served on the Library Board and the county Planning Commission, Wanda Stitt Gohdes, Chair of the Oconee Area Resource Council Board, Jeff Hood, a Vice Chair of the Oconee County Republican Party, and Alan Hickerson, President of the Friends of the Oconee County Library.
Other Appointments
The Board also will be making two appointments from five applicant for the Farmland Preservation Committee.
James (Thad) Padgett currently serves on the Board and has applied for reappointment.
The Board will be selected from among six applicants for the two openings on the Board of Health.
Two persons have applied for the single appointment as Oconee County citizen representative on the MACORTS Policy Committee. MACORTS is the federally mandated metropolitan planning organization for the northern part of Oconee County.
The Board usually makes its decisions on appointments to the citizen committee in executive session at the end of the agenda-setting meeting preceding the regular session at which it announces its choices.
The Board went into executive session for personnel discussion at the end of its meeting on Nov. 26 and emerged nearly 40 minutes later before adjourning without taking any action.
Video
The video below of the Nov. 26, 2024, meeting of the Board of Commissioners is on the county’s YouTube channel.
The meeting starts at 6:00 in the video.
Discussion of the Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance begins at 7:01 in the video.
Discussion of the employee health insurance program begins at 14:50 in the video.
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