Luke Bishop told the Oconee County Planning Commission last week that his large family has a lot of “opinions” about how to develop the corner lot at Experiment Station Road and Bishop Farms Parkway, but, when approached by a local group with a concept for a small grocery store, restaurant, and gas station, the family was happy.
Celia Watson, who lives in Old Waverly, had preceded Bishop to the podium at the zoning hearing, saying she wanted “to share with you a little bit about our new concept, Market Station.”
She said the plan is to create a “destination place” with a “high end” grocery, “a great restaurant,” a bakery, a barista preparing “specialized coffee,” indoor and outdoor seating, and a pavilion that will be “a great place to have family gatherings and to do very family oriented things.”
In response to a question from Commission Member Jim Jenkins, Watson said that Market Station is “a new brand, and I don't know if there'll ever be a second, but we'll have a lot of fun with the first for sure.”
Dan Magee, who lives on nearby Loch Lomond Circle, spoke against the rezone saying the area already is congested and currently is well served by gas stations, restaurants, and a grocery.
The Commission voted 8 to 0 to recommend that the Board of Commissioners approve the rezone at its Jan. 6 meeting.
The Commission also unanimously recommended approval of a request by Townley Family Partnership LLLP to rezone 242.3 acres stretching from Clotfelter Road to Malcom Bridge Road for a 119 lot residential subdivision.
Townley Family Partnership accepted the stipulation that the county will not grant any final plats needed for issuance of a building permit for the subdivision for 10 years from the date of approval of the rezone by the commissioners. That item is also on the Jan. 6 Board of Commissioners agenda.
Bishop Family Request
Members of the Bishop family own 17.8 acres stretching from Experiment Station Road along the east side of Bishop Farms Parkway to the Oconee Campus of the University of North Georgia.
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| One Of Five Submitted Renditions For Market Station |
The Bishop family is requesting that the lot fronting on Experiment Station Road be increased in size to 4.8 acres and zoned to B-1 (General Business) from AR-3 (Agricultural Residential Three Acre District).
The remaining three lots would be slightly reconfigured and be zoned AR-3.
Frank Pittman, of Pittman and Greer Engineering, representing the Bishop Family, acknowledged at the Planning Commission meeting that the family is likely to ask those remaining three lots be zoned commercial at some point in the future.
The Bishop family also is seeking a variance to reduce the buffer between the B-1 lot and the adjoining AR-3 lot from 50 feet to 20 feet because of “the likelihood” that the adjoining lot “will never be built as a residential lot” and the larger buffer would be “a waste of valuable commercial property,” according to the request.
The family also is requesting a variance from the requirements in the Mars Hill Overlay District that the roof line be a gable or hip style roof with a minimum pitch and that the roof material be architectural tab shingles, slate, or wood shakes with standing seam accents.
The plan is for a flat roof with some pitched accents and areas.
A third variance request is to allow a building with 23,500 square foot total on two floors, exceeding the limitation in the county Unified Development Code in a B-1 Zone of 12,000 square foot on two floors with a 6,000 square footprint or 20,000 square foot for a single-story building.
The Planning Commission does not hear variance requests, which are scheduled to come before the Board of Commissioners with the rezone request itself on Jan. 6.
Details Of Hearing
Pittman said the concept for the Market Station is for a building with 19,500 square feet of space on the first floor and a 4,000 square foot restaurant on the second floor.
Pittman noted that the county has approved zoning for several large grocery stores in recent years but that the Bishop proposal is for a grocery comparable to Stripling's at Hog Mountain Road and U.S. 78 “as far as scale goes” and about a fourth the size of a “normal size grocery store.”
According to qPublic records, the Publix in Butler’s Crossing is 51,568 square feet, while Stripling’s, according to the documents on qPublic, is 16,864 square feet in size.
Luke Bishop said that the family, in considering development options for the property “didn't want to go commercial as far as a retail chain.”
The family liked the concept that Watson presented, he said. “So we think it's a good thing for the county, and we're excited to be a part of it.”
Watson said the the company seeking the rezone is Oconee Made, which, according to Georgia Secretary of State business records, was formed in 2024 and has Watson as the registered agent. The office address is 1720 Gracewood Parkway, which is off Ray’s Church Road in the west of the county.
Prominent Oconee County retired businessman Archie Crenshaw is CEO of Triple C. Services Inc., which is a general partner of Gracewood Office LP, which owns the Gracewood Parkway property.
“The development itself is going to be such a great, really cool concept,” Watson told the Planning Commission at its meeting on Dec. 9. “It's more of a destination place than just a grocery store, but it is a grocery store, and there are gas pumps.”
“But we'll also have a great restaurant, and we'll have an upstairs area where you can eat inside and outside,” she said. “So, we feel like it's a great place to grab lunch with a girlfriend, great place to have dinner in the evenings.”
“It'll have great visibility from Experiment Station (road)”, she said, “and it'll also be a beautiful building. I know that you saw some of the concepts. We haven't nailed them all down yet, but we have a really good handle on the look, and it will definitely be upscale.”
Comments In Opposition
“There's a reason why it's currently zoned as Agriculture Res 3 (Agriculture Residential 3),” Magee said when he came to the podium. “There's farmland across the street, farmland to the west. Neighborhood across northwest. Neighborhood to the west. There's nothing about this that is general business.” (First American Bank and Trust opposite the Bishop property is zoned B-1).
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| Zoning Map Bishop Rezone |
“The gas pumps are out front, which is ridiculous,” he said. “It's out front. It's supposed to be a family thing. Ugly. Ugly to have gas pumps out front. A drive-thru is a drive-thru, despite what anyone says. It looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck.”
The rezone narrative says that “There will be a drive thru that would be mostly used for coffee and some food items or pick ups, but not be a typical fast food style restaurant.”
“If you're familiar with UNG (University of North Georgia),” Magee said, “after afternoon classes and nighttime classes, they're flying out of there. They are flying out of there. This just adds to this.”
“This is an important part of the county,” he said. “This is going to add to congestion. It's going to cause some safety issues. Gas pumps out front are ugly. We can do better. This is not the place for that.”
Access to the grocery store and restaurant would be via a full entrance on Bishop Farm Parkway and a right in right out driveway on Experiment Station Road.
Bishop Farms Parkway currently dead ends at the university, though the county has plans, currently on hold because of the cost, to extend the road to Bishop Farms Parkway South and to New High Shoals Road.
Townley Request
Townley Family Partnership LLLP is asking the county to rezone the 242.3 acres stretching from Clotfelter Road to Malcom Bridge Road from AG (Agricultural) to R-1 (Single Family Residential District) for a 119 lot residential subdivision.
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| Representative Architecture Themes Submitted With Townley Rezone |
The subdivision, if approved, will have access to both Clotfelter Road, and through the existing Malcom Bridge Estates, to Malcom Bridge Road.
Jeff Carter with Carter Engineering Consultants, representing Townley Family Partnership, referred to the proposed development as Malcom Bridge Estates Phase II.
Carter said the second phase, as is the case with the Phase I, will be gated, with the homeowners responsible for the internal roadways.
The rezone request before the Planning Commission on Dec. 9 follows a similar rezone approved by the Board of Commissioners in January of 300 acres north of Hog Mountain Road between Rocky Branch and Hodges Mill roads for a 120-lot residential subdivision.
The Board set as a condition of that rezone a 10-year moratorium on development of the property, and the county planning staff is recommending that same condition should the Board approve the rezone currently being sought by Townley Family Partnership.
Carter had originally proposed only a five year moratorium, but he told the Planning Commission that Townley would accept the 10 year moratorium recommended by the planning staff as a condition for this rezone.
Tony Townley, one of the founders of Zaxby’s restaurant company, is the owner or managing member of Townley Family Partnership LLLP.
Speaker In Opposition
Kandyce West, who lives on Malcom Bridge Road near the entrance to Malcom Bridge Estates Phase I, said “they're just building a whole new neighborhood with a bunch of houses.”
“We don't need any more houses in Oconee County,” she said. “It's too busy in that intersection right now.”
“We've got schools right there,” she continued. “The children can get hit by cars or whatever with so much traffic. I just don't agree with all the building that's going on there right now.”
No one other than Carter and West spoke at the public hearing.
The Commission voted 8 to 0 to recommend that the Board of Commissioners approve the rezone request.
In addition to Jenkins, members of the Planning Commission present were James Staples, Robert Tieman, Nathan Byrd, Chuck Hunt, Colby Baker, Ann Evans, Stephen LaPierre, and Lisa Ferguson.
Hunt, as chair, only votes in the case of a tie.
Bishop Rezone Request Withdrawn
At its meeting in November, the Planning Commission voted 4 to 3 vote to recommend to the Mayor and Town Council of Bishop that it deny a request that it rezone six acres on High Shoals Road next to the planned St. Aelred Catholic Church for use as a special events venue.
Justin Greer of Pittman and Greer Engineering sent Bishop Mayor Drew Kurtz a letter dated Nov. 19 asking that he withdraw that request from the Dec. 8 agenda.
Greer offered no explanation for the request, which was honored by the Council.
The county planning staff, acting on behalf of the Town Of Bishop, had recommended against approval of the rezone and had recommended the granting of a buffer variance only if the zoning request had been approved.
Video
The video below is on the Oconee County YouTube Channel.
Discussion of the Townley rezone request begins at 9:57 in the video.
Discussion of the Bishop family rezone begins at 23:22 in the video.
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