Oconee County commissioners on Tuesday approved two zoning changes designed to allow the developer of a shopping center at U.S. 78 and Mars Hill Road in the northwest of the county to move forward with the project.
The zoning changes are to accommodate a grocery store, putting the developer in the position to be first among three shopping centers along U.S. that included a grocery in their plans to actually build the store.
Fred Hand IV, of Hand Properties of Atlanta, who plans to develop the roughly 12 acres on which the grocery will be located, said he has a nondisclosure agreement with the future tenant and said after the meeting that “we’re not quite ready to disclose” the name of the grocery.
The commissioners took quick action without discussion on the requests by Hand and current property owner William Jones of Jones Petroleum Company.
They spent more time before approving changes in the concept plan for the IMI Industrial Campus in the Gateway Technology and Business Park on Aikin Road.
At issue was the kind of buffer IMI should have around its facility, which includes a corporate office facing Aikin Road and fabrication and related facilities behind those offices running to SR 316.
The industrial facilities will have metal exteriors, and the buffers approved by the Board are designed to screen those metal buildings from traffic on Aikin Road on the north and Pete Dickens Road on the west as well as from abutting residential properties.
The meeting on Tuesday got off to an emotional start when Jeff Morgan stepped forward during the citizen comment section and asked the commissioners to take action to make Colham Ferry Road safer.
Morgan’s 17-year-old son William died in a single-car accident on Colham Ferry Road on March 4.
Shopping Center Rezone
The first request before the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday (April 1) 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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| Hand Before Commission 4/1/2025 |
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.
The plan is to obtain a GDOT approval for a full signal interchange for access to the shopping center and for Clotfelter Road, which is opposite the planned entrance to the shopping center.
The second zoning request before the Planning Commission was by William Jones and was to change the plans for the shopping center he submitted with his rezone in May of 2019.
The new plans submitted to the county for the shopping center, which wraps around the existing JP convenience store with fuel pumps and a Burger King, includes the grocery store and adjoining shops and several other buildings, one labeled as a hotel or office building.
Jeremy Crosby of JPC Design and Construction of Jackson, who represented both Green Oaks Farm and Jones, told the commissioners on Tuesday night that he expects the building will be used for offices not as a hotel.
Other Shopping Centers
Grocery stores have been shown in conceptual plans for two other shopping centers approved for the U.S. 78 corridor by the Board of Commissioners.
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.
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 called Markets at Meadowlands that also included a grocery store.
Guy Herring, Director of Planning and Code Enforcement for Oconee County, said his office has approved a site development permit for Oconee Crossing but “They have not begun work and we do not have any indication on when they might.”
“Markets at Meadowlands has not submitted anything to us for review,” he said in an email message.
IMI Request
IMI asked the Commissioners to allow it to reconfiguration the 2024 concept plan for the 52.8 acre parcel it has purchased in the Gateway Technology and Business Park on the edge of Bogart.
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| Phillips Before Commission 4/1/2025 |
IMI is moving its offices and manufacturing facilities from the Industrial Park in Watkinsville to Gateway.
Jeremy Phillips from IMI Industrial Services Group said on Tuesday that the company has grown to over 300 employees and has outgrown its space.
“We are very disjointed in the property that we current hold,” he added, “and we're excited to relocate, staying in the county, leaving these jobs in the county, while also bringing more jobs to the county.”
He said the request was to revise the initial plans and “lay it out for future expansion.”
Phillips said the roughly half of the property is not being used for the IMI campus will be left as is for the foreseeable future.
“We have no current intentions other than keeping it in grass and pasture, keeping it clean,” Phillips said. He said he owns a small farm and “I need some hay for the cows, so if I could grow some good grass and get some get some hay bailed I’d like to do that.”
Nature Of Berm
Much of the discussion with the commissioners focused on the possible future use of that land and the berm the county planning staff had recommended to separate the used space from the unused space.
The planning staff wanted IMI to create a berm that is five feet high with a six foot wood or vinyl fence on top to separate the unused property from the developed property.
The berm is to hide the metal-sided industrial buildings, which also will be visible from Aiken and Pete Dickens roads.
The commissioners modified that condition to allow for an 11-foot berm in place of the berm and fence.
On the eastern side of the 52.8 acre parcel, 7.2 acres are within the boundaries of the city of Bogart.
The proposed changes in the plans will be before the Bogart City Council on April 14.
Pleas For Colham Ferry Road Changes
When Morgan came to the podium, he stated that he wanted “to talk to you about safety on Colham Ferry Road.
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| Morgan Before Commission 4/1/2025 |
“Tonight marks a month since my son was killed on Colham Ferry Road,” he stated in a very controlled voice. “He was not speeding. We know that because we track his phone. He was not on his phone. He had his seat belt on. It was a straight away and something happened. And we don't know what.”
“But we see accidents over and over and over again on Colham Ferry Road,” Morgan said.
“We have very little speed control on Colham Ferry Road,” he said. “Now that it's been repaved, people are going even faster on that road. I see people I know are running at least 70 maybe 80 miles an hour through there, towing stuff.”
“Many a morning it has been that I've gotten up at 5 o'clock to head to work and had to go knock on a farmer's door and say, 'hey your cows are out in the middle of the road.' I've seen deer and all kinds of animals," Morgan said.
"There is farm equipment. There's logging trucks. There's large diesel trucks that come up and down that road,” he said. “There is no speed control on that road whatsoever.”
Converting the intersection of Astondale Road and Colham Ferry Road from a two-way stop to a four-way stop would slow traffic, he said.
“We don't know why my son died,” Morgan said. “But we know that he was doing all the right things and still had this accident.”
“How many more people are we going to have have accidents where we can put road controls up. We can put reduced speed signs. We can control the passing.”
“We have a lot of bicyclists on that road,” he continued. “We deserve to have a bike lane there.”
“I'm sorry that I waited until something tragic happened in my life to take action about it,” he said. “Now I'm putting it on you. You're the leaders of our county. I would like to give you some homework. Come back next month and tell me what's going to happen and what changes are going to be made.”
Dawson Park
The Commissioners on Tuesday also approved a design services contract with Carter Engineering for Dawson Park.
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| Kirouac 3/25/2025 |
Lose Design of Duluth, in response to a request for proposals, had produced three different plans for the park, which the commissioners had reviewed at their Strategic Planning Session on Jan. 29.
At its agenda setting meeting on March 25, County Administrator Justin Kirouac said continued discussion with Lose Design following the Jan. 29 meeting led him to turn to Carter, the second bidder behind Lose.
The proposal from Carter covers engineering and design of the park with the exception of the two gymnasiums planned for the future and of the field services building at a cost of $759,900.
For that same work, Lose would charge $919,321, Kirouac said.
“Our plan therefore tonight would be to terminate at Lose at this point and move forward with Carter Engineering for the design services,” he said.
He said he would come back with separate design contracts in the future for the gymnasiums and the field services building.
The Board tentatively approved that action at the March 25 meeting, putting it on its consent agenda, and approved finally on Tuesday (April 1).
Video
The video below is on the Oconee County YouTube Channel.
The meeting starts at 5:09 in the video.
Morgan made his plea to the Commission at 6:10 in the video.
Discussion of the shopping center rezone requests is at 12:09 in the video.
The IMI request is at 20:00 in the video.
The still images above came from video that I recorded as a backup to the county video of the March 25 and April 1 Board of Commissioners meetings.
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