Attorney David Ellison has informed the Oconee County Board of Commissioners that his client Deferred Tax LLC objects to the county initiated rezone of property owned by Deferred Tax at the corner of the Oconee Connector and Mars Hill Road.
In a letter dated Nov. 25, Ellison said the county is proposing to “down zone” the 33.7 acre site, an “action that would impose a significant detriment” on his client.
In a second letter on that same date, Ellison also objected to the conditions proposed by the county on the rezone, focusing particularly on the county’s intent to allow only a right in right out driveway on the Oconee Connector.
The county announced on Oct. 7 that the Board of Commissioners is considering a Board Initiated Rezone for the 33.7 acres, with a hearing scheduled for Dec. 2.
The legal announcement of the hearing contained an error in describing the rezone, according to Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell, and the Board now intends to hold a hearing on its proposed rezone on Jan. 6.
The property consists of two parcels, and the larger is zoned B-1 General Business District, and the smaller parcel is zoned B-2 Highway Business District.
In 2022, the county turned down a request by Deferred Tax to rezone the property to create three B-2 zoned lots and eight B-1 zoned lots. Deferred Tax filed suit against the county following that decision.
The county initiated rezone divides the 33 acres into four parts, with the largest part zoned B-2, another part zoned B-1, and two parcels zoned OIP Office Institutional Professional District.
First Letter From Ellison
In the first of the two letters sent to Board Chair Daniell on Nov. 25, Ellison stated that the property is currently zoned B-2, “but the county’s proposed zoning would down zone the property to OIP.”
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| Deferred Tax Properties |
At present, a 6.84-acre parcel at the corner of the Connector and Mars Hill Road is zoned B-2 as a result of a rezone in 1988.
The county zoned the 26.8-acre parcel B-1 PUD (Planned Unit Development) in 1992. (The PUD classification is no longer used by the county.)
That B-1 parcel fronts on the Connector, Mars Hill Road, and Virgil Langford Road.
Deferred Tax owns another parcel zoned R-1 (Residential One Acre District) that was not part of the 2022 rezone request by Deferred Tax and is not a part of the county initiated rezone.
The county initiated rezone would create two lots that front on Mars Hill Road that are zoned OIP.
It also would change the B-1 zoning to B-2 for much of the property currently zoned B-1.
“The current B-2 zone allows for a wide range of uses which allows our client to realize a reasonable return on its investment on the property,” Ellison wrote, “but a rezone to OIP would dramatically reduce the value of the property and prohibit many uses our client presently enjoys by right under B-2.”
Second Letter From Ellison
The rezone initiated by the Board of Commissioners has four access points, one on the Oconee Connector and three on Mars Hill Road. Three of those are right-in, right-out driveways, including the one on the Oconee Connector.
One of the driveways on Mars Hill Road is at a future roundabout.
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| County Initiated Rezone Plan |
The county initiated rezone would allow not more than 170,000 square feet of space with allowed uses of a supermarket, retail shopping plaza, drive in bank, automobile car wash, and general office.
Publix was involved in the federal permit to fill wetlands on the site and is frequently mentioned as a tenant for the proposed Deferred Tax shopping center.
The county states that “Conditions of the rezone will include, but not be limited to, office uses only along Mars Hill Road as indicated on the rezone concept plan, associated road improvements as indicated on the rezone concept plan, enhanced landscape buffers, architectural standards, and a phased approach for the development.”
Ellison, in his second letter to Daniell, says that “These condition, and the elimination of our client’s right to full commercial access to the Oconee Connector, amounts to a regulatory taking.”
“These conditions and the county’s elimination of this full commercial access is forcing our client to bear the cots of development elsewhere in the county,” Ellison continued.
Ellison said that Deferred Tax has a right to a full interchange with a traffic light at the existing median break on the connector as a result of a historical agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation that resulted in the creation of the Oconee Connector.
Construction is underway for a grade separated interchange of the Connector and SR 316, with SR 316 flying over the Connector on two separate bridges and with the eastbound exit from 316 on the northern edge of the Deferred Tax property.
Explanation of County Action
County Attorney Haygood said after the initiation of the county rezone that the county action is a response to the suit filed by Deferred Tax in Oconee Superior Court.
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| Schematic Of Current Plans For Connector/SR 316 Interchange |
“There is existing zoning on the property and existing site plans” from the rezones in 1988 and 1992, Haygood said.
“Because of the construction of the roads through those sites,” he continued, referring to SR 316 and the Connector, “the plan cannot be built as submitted.”
“So, at this point, they don’t have any zoning on that property that they can actually use, which means it is not a Constitutional zoning, arguably,” he said.
“So, what the Board has determined to do is to rezone the property in such a way that the zoning does comply with the constitutional requirements,” he continued.
Haygood said the county initiated the rezone without knowing how Deferred Tax would respond.
Deferred Tax LLC is registered at 1261 Hammond Creek Trail. Maxie Price Jr. is registered to vote at that address, based on July 2024 records.
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