Representatives of Jones Petroleum Company and Hand Properties were before the Oconee County Planning Commission on Monday with the most specific plans to date for a grocery store in the U.S. 78 corridor in the northwest part of the county.
The request was to rezone a very narrow strip of land north of and opposite Clotfelter Road on U.S. 78 that will allow for a signalized entrance to a planned shopping center to the west of the JP convenience store and fuel station and Burger King at Mars Hill Road.
The second request was to change the approved concept plan for that shopping center to situate a 55,000 square foot grocery facing U.S. 78 that will be accessed by that signalized intersection and by another right-in, right-out entrance on U.S. 78.
Once the rezone changes are made, the plan is for Jones Petroleum Company to sell the roughly 12 acres on which the grocery store and adjoining shops will sit to Hand Properties of Atlanta, according to Jeremy Crosby of JPC Construction Company.
Fred Hand IV, who attended the Planning Commission meeting on Monday, said after the meeting that he intends to submit plans for that grocery soon after the rezones are complete and that he has a tenant lined up for the grocery.
The Planning Commission voted 8 to 0 to recommend that the Oconee County Board of Commissioners approve the two requests–for the entrance and for the new concept plan--at its meeting on April 1.
In other action, the Planning Commission, in 6 to 2 votes, recommended to the Board of Commissioners and the Bogart Mayor and Council approval of changes to the concept plans for the IMI Industrial Campus in the Gateway Technology and Business Park on Aikin Road.
Part of the property is in the unincorporated part of the county, and part falls inside the city limits of Bogart, necessitating final approval by the county and the city.
First Zoning Request
The first request before the Planning Commission on Monday (March 17) was to rezone from AG (Agricultural) to B-2 (Highway Business) a 0.9 acre parcel to be carved from a larger 43.9 acre tract to create a new access to the proposed grocery store and adjoining shops.
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| Crosby Before Commission 3/17/2025 |
The 43 acres and the 0.9 acres are owned by Green Oaks Farm Enterprises LP from Washington, Georgia, which was making the rezone request.
The access will be used for the Green Oaks Farm agricultural property and for the adjoining 31.8 acres owned by William B. Jones of Jackson.
The 43 acres of the Green Oaks Farm property will remain zoned AG.
Guy Herring, Director of Planning and Code Enforcement for Oconee County, told the Planning Commission on Monday that the rezoning of the 0.9 acres will allow for access to U.S. 78 at Clotfelter Road.
At present, turn lanes east and west on U.S. 78 exist at Clotfelter Road, although that Road does not cross U.S. 78.
The goal is to obtain GDOT approve for a signal for the intersection.
Jeremy Crosby of JPC Design and Construction of Jackson, who represented both Green Oaks Farm and William Jones before the Planning Commission, said both his clients and the county want to add the new intersection.
With a signal at Mars Hill and the new signal “hopefully traffic will flow better at the whole vicinity,” he said.
Second Zoning Request
The second zoning request before the Planning Commission was by William Jones.
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| Drawing Submitted With Jones Rezone Request |
The county had rezoned the 31.8 acres on the north side of U.S. 78 and Mars Hill Road from A-1 (Agricultural District) to B-2 in May of 2019 for construction of a JP convenience store with fuel pumps and a Burger King.
At the request of the county, Jones also submitted concept plans for development of the remainder of the property, listing a hotel on Mars Hill Road, a series of smaller retail or office buildings, and a big box store sitting back from U.S. 78.
Patrick Thompson, whose property on Mars Hill Road abuts the Jones property on two sides, told the Planning Commission on Monday that while “in general I am in favor of this...my main issue is with the relocation of the tallest structure they plan to build--the hotel--being moved to 75 ft from my backyard.”
He asked that the buffer be increased or the building be moved further from his property line.
Crosby said he would be willing to reduce the building from three stories to two as long as the total square footage remained 95,700. The Commission inserted that agreement in the resolution it passed.
In a telephone conversation on March 19, Crosby said he thought the square footage set aside for the hotel might better be developed as a professional building.
Crosby also said that the plan is to sell off the roughly 12 acres on which the big box and adjoining shops are located once the rezone is in place. Hand Properties will purchase and develop the property, Crosby said.
“We can only say that it is going to be a grocery store,” Crosby said.
Grocery Plans
The narrative for the rezone request submitted by Crosby includes a conceptual drawing of a building labeled “Grocery Food & Pharmacy” with a “Pharmacy Drive Thru.”
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| Horn Before Commission 3/17/2025 |
In a telephone conversation on March 20, Hand said “we are way along in design.”
“If we are approved by the Board of Commissioners on April 1, I hope to be in for permits later that month.”
“I can’t use the tenants name,” he said, but he said he should be able to do that when the construction drawings are submitted.
Grocery stores have been shown in conceptual plans for two other shopping centers approved for the U.S. 78 corridor, but no specific stores have been announced to this point.
In May of 2023 the Board of Commissioners approved a rezone for Oconee Crossing Shopping Center with frontage on Hog Mountain Road and on U.S. 78 northeast of Stripling’s General Store.
The plans called for a large grocery.
County tax records list that property as still in the hands of the original owner, Donald Hammett
In September of 2021, the Board of Commissioners approved a rezone for a mixed used project on U.S. 78 between Dials Mill Road and Talus Street that also included a grocery store.
Developer Mark Jennings has not yet moved forward on that project.
Third Rezone
The third rezone request before the Planning Commission on Monday involved the reconfiguration of the 2024 concept plan for IMI, which is moving its offices and manufacturing facilities from the Industrial Park in Watkinsville to the Gateway Park.
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| Elder 3/17/2025 |
Jeremy Phillips from IMI Industrial Services Group told the Planning Commission that the current facilities in the Industrial Park “are very disjointed, and we are out of space,” necessitating the move to the Bogart facility.
He said IMI has more than 200 full-time employees. “These employees need more space,” he said. “We need the capacity to hire additional employees, bring more jobs to the county.”
“Our concept was further refined to condense it,” he said. The buildings have been moved on the property to stay away from residential properties along Pete Dickens Road.
That also leaves an area for future expansion, he said.
Much of the discussion about the request focused on the buffers being required by the county planning staff.
Planning Commission Member Matt Elder said the buffers were excessive.
“I am totally against buffering myself from myself because I've had to do it,” he said.
In the end, Elder and Colby Baker voted against the recommendation, with Jim Jenkins, James Staples, Mike Floyd, Chris Herring. Ann Evans, and Stephens LaPierre, voting in favor.
Video
The video below is on the county’s YouTube Channel.
The still images above are from the video I shot.
The meeting begins at 3:51 in the video.
Discussion of the rezone request for the entrance to the shopping center starts at 6:05 in the video.
Discussion of the rezone request for changes in concept plans for the shopping center begins at 15:18 in the video.
Discussion of the IMI rezone request begins at 30:44 in the video.
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