Attorney Jeffrey DeLoach, speaking to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night, rejected the county initiated rezone plan for the 33.7 acres on the Oconee Connector between SR 316 and Mars Hill Road.
DeLoach said his client, Deferred Tax LLC, was interested in a settlement of the lawsuit Deferred Tax had filed against the county, but not in the proposal the county was offering through its rezone.
DeLoach specifically rejected the downzoning of 6.9 acres at the corner of the Connector and Mars Hill Road from its current B-2 Highway Business District classification.
He also said he objected to the conditions the county wants to impose on the rezone, mentioning specifically the requirement of access to Virgil Langford Road.
Following DeLoach’s statement of objections, the Board, without discussion, unanimously approved the rezone before it without modifications.
The Board on Tuesday also unanimously approved a rezone request for 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 for a development that includes a small grocery store, restaurant, and gas station.
It also rezoned 242.3 acres stretching from Clotfelter Road to Malcom Bridge Road for a 119-lot residential subdivision and granted a variances for development of 52.1 acres in Gateway Technology and Business Park on the edge of Bogart.
Rezone hearings dominated the meeting, but the Board also agreed to spend $4.7 million for renovation of the Courthouse in downtown Watkinsville and $500,000 for contract modifications for design work on two roundabouts on Hog Mountain Road.
Deferred Tax Rezone
The Deferred Tax rezone hearing was the final rezone case on the Board of Commissioners’s agenda on Tuesday night.
 |
| DeLoach 1 6/2026 |
More than 50 people were in the Commission Chamber as the meeting began, and just more than 30 remained as the commissioners took up the Deferred Tax case.
The county announced on Oct. 7 its plan to rezone the 33.7 acres owned by Deferred Tax LLC that has been proposed for a shopping center to include a Publix as an anchor.
The Board had turned down a request by Deferred Tax for rezone of that property in 2022, in part because of traffic concerns.
In March of 2023, Deferred Tax filed suit against the county, asking the Oconee County Superior Court to overturn the county decision.
A hearing on that suit was on the docket of Oconee County Superior Court Judge Eric Norris for Jan. 26, but Superior Court Clerk Angela Elder-Johnson said on Thursday the docket has been cleared and no hearing will be held on that date.
Contrasting Proposals
The rezone initiated by the Board of Commissioners in October 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 required roundabout.
At present, the 33.7 acres are divided into two parcels: the 6.9 acres at the corner of the Connector and Mars Hill Road currently zoned B-2 Highway Business District and 26.8 acres stretching from the Connector, Mars Hill Road, and Virgil Langford Road currently zoned B-1 General Business District.
The rezone initiated by the county divides the 33.7 acres into four parts, with the largest part zoned B-2, and another part zoned B-1. B-2 is the more intense business zoning category.
The two parcels facing Mars Hill Road are to be zoned OIP Office Institutional Professional District under the county plan.
While the county initiated site plan shows the right-in, right-out access at three of the four driveways and a roundabout on Mars Hill Road at the fourth driveway, the Deferred Tax plan turned down by the Commissioners showed a full access with a traffic light at a median break on the Oconee Connector, a full access at two of the three Mars Hill Road driveways, and a right-in, right-out at the fourth.
The Deferred Tax plan showed most of the property zoned B-2, including all of the property fronting on the Oconee Connector and most of the property fronting on Mars Hill Road.
The 2025 business registration with the Georgia Secretary of State shows the principal office address for Deferred Tax LLC as 1261 Hammond Creek Trail in Old Waverly subdivision off Rocky Branch Road. Maxie Price signed the lawsuit as Member for Deferred Tax LLC.
DeLoach Before Commission
DeLoach said he was speaking on behalf of Deferred Tax to oppose the rezoning of the 6.9 acres at the corner of the Connector and Mars Hill Road and “also to oppose the conditions that are being placed on the rezoning of the additional tract.”
 |
| Horton 1/6/2026 |
DeLoach said he had been in discussion with the county about ways to settle the lawsuit, but he said those discussions had not been productive.
“Rather than resolving the pending litigation,” he said, “this rezoning action will only prolong the litigation, which is disappointing to me, because I got hired to try to help get it resolved.” Attorney David Ellison represented Deferred Tax in earlier hearings and in the filing of the lawsuit.
The tract at the corner of the Connector and Mars Hill Road has been zoned B-2 since 1988, DeLoach said, and all four corners of that intersection are zoned B-2.
“To down zone my client's property to OIP is a significant change,” DeLoach said, “and that corner will stand in stark contrast to the other four (actually three) corners, which is contrary to the standards set out in Georgia law.”
“Currently the market has an excess of OIP,” he said, “and we believe this corner being down zoned cannot be justified by any public benefit.” It also “violates our client's investment-backed expectations in purchasing the property,” he added.
According to county tax records, Deferred Tax purchased the two properties in 2006 for $3.1 million. The two properties currently are assessed at $2.2 million.
DeLoach said he agreed that the second parcel needs to be rezoned, but “Our problem is with the conditions that are being placed on that rezone.”
“It is financially not feasible to develop it” as proposed by the county, he said. The corner lot includes wetlands, and DeLoach said the required piping and filling of the stream and the required mitigation makes it “just too expensive to develop it in the way it's being proposed.”
Traffic Issues
DeLoach said he understands the county’s concern about traffic and the county’s desire to manage that.
“The reason a Publix would want to be there, the reason these other developments would want to be there, is because the traffic is already there,” DeLoach had said.
“The traffic that's already there is not the responsibility of the property owner that is trying to develop a piece of property,” DeLoach said. “And Georgia law is very clear on that.”
“So making a decision based on traffic that's already there, when the increase to traffic is minimal and there is a plan to try to manage it in an appropriate manner, we believe that is certainly the way we should go rather than the conditions that are there.”
The Traffic impact study conducted by the county in September of 2025 indicates the Phase I development with a supermarket, car wash, bank, and office buildings will produce an additional 7,545 Average Daily Trips (ADTs). The AM peak is projected at 334 trips and with the PM peak at 794.
DeLoach said the condition that the second phase of the project cannot be developed until there is access to Virgil Langford Road is unacceptable.
“We can't guarantee we'll ever have access to Virgil Langford,” he said. “We don't control all the property there. We'd like to have access there at some point, but to put a condition like that on this property, to say that could never be developed without that, we believe that kind of condition is unconstitutional.”
Other Speakers
Prior to DeLoach’s comments, Jennifer Walker, who had been a leader of opposition to earlier rezone requests for the Deferred Tax property, thanked the commissioners for the rezone the county had initiated.
 |
| Walker 1/6/2026 |
“I want to give you my sincere appreciation, gratitude for review of this property and trying to make it more aligned with the heavily residential area right across the street,” Walker said. She is a resident of nearby Bond Crossing subdivison.
“I also want to appreciate the consideration of traffic flow with no light added to the Oconee Connector and the roundabout that's put on Mars Hill,” she continued, “although there's always that concern of traffic that would be increased in that area.”
Larry Watson, who lives on Mars Hill Road west of the proposed shopping center, told the commissioners “I'm not really sure that I'm against the project, but I'm not sure that I'm for it either.”
Walton said he is concerned about the “safety and integrity of the agricultural/ residential nature of the Mars Hill community.”
“According to my most recent count,” Walton said, “612 families live either directly on Mars Hill Road--47 houses that access and leave their homes directly from Mars Hill, another 565 homes that are accessed off of Mars Hill Road in the subdivisions between the Oconee Connector and Malcolm Bridge (Road).”
“That actual amounts to somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,720 individuals, if you take the current 2.81 household members per family and multiply it times that amount of homes,” he said.
“That gives you about 1,720 individuals that are going to be impacted every day, all day, by the increased traffic that's going to be present on Mars Hill Road,” he said.
DeLoach followed Walker and Walton, and when DeLoach has finished, Board Chair John Daniell asked: “Do we have any questions from commissioners?”
“Hearing none, we'll entertain a motion,” he continued.
Commissioner Chuck Horton made the motion to approve the rezone. Commissioner Mark Saxon seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Bishop Family Request
Members of the Bishop family, who own the 17.8 along the east side of Bishop Farms Parkway, were asking the Board to rezone 4.8 acres at the corner of Bishop Farms Parkway and Experiment Station Road to B-1 (General Business) from AR-3 (Agricultural Residential Three Acre District).
 |
| Watson 1/6/2026 |
The family asked that the remaining acres be zoned AR-3 for now, with the expectation that someone will develop these acres commercially in the future.
Cissy Watson, who lives in Old Waverly, told the commissioners on Tuesday that she plans to developed the 4.8-acre tract into what she is calling Market Station to “showcase local provisioning and local coffee roasters and different types of local products.”
“We're very much striving for this to be kind of a destination place,” she said. “You'd swing by to grab gas, coffee in the morning, a great biscuit and groceries, prepared foods.”
Watson said she also wants to “create a place to meet and have coffee, with the restaurant upstairs, with the outdoor pavilion. We're looking for it to be really family friendly and just a place that's really fun.”
Market Station is to be housed in a building with 19,500 square feet of space on the first floor and a 4,000 square foot restaurant on the second floor. Up to 10 fueling pumps will face Experiment Station Road.
According to qPublic records, the Publix in Butler’s Crossing is 51,568 square feet, while Stripling’s on U.S. 78 is 16,864 square feet in size.
Meredith Bishop Marlowe, representing the Bishop family, followed Watson and said “we've been approached many different times by different people about selling the property, but have not done that.”
“When this group has approached us, though, this is something that we really believe in,” she said. “We really like the concept, the plan, the thought that's gone behind it, the entrepreneurship that's gone into it.”
“It's well thought out, well planned, and it's something that we as a family think would be a good opportunity for our county and the residents here to really get behind and be involved with.”
Public Comment, Commission Vote
Kirsten Magee, who lives on nearby Loch Lomond Circle, said “I actually love and respect the Bishops very much. I do. We have a personal relationship.”
 |
| Magee 1/6/2026 |
Magee said she lives very close to the proposed Market Station, and “we have a gas station literally next door. We have a Publix. I understand this is a different concept. That's lovely. But I don't think I want a million cars coming through (U.S.) 441 in that intersection.”
“That's what we're projected to look at over the entire year,” she said. “And that's a really big number.”
“I've always been concerned about safety,” Magee said. “So I really truly come from this from a different perspective.”
Commissioner Horton responded to Magee by saying “there’s traffic on that road now. There's no denying it.”
“I don't think what the applicant is proposing brings more traffic there,” he said. “They already got it.”
Watson had described Market Station as a destination, meaning it will draw traffic, and the traffic analysis for the project shows it will generate an additional 3,581 average daily trips, with an AM peak of 174 trips and a PM peak of 276.
DeLoach referenced that comment from Horton later in the meeting when DeLoach said the county could not take traffic into consideration in the Deferred Tax rezone plan because the area also is heavily traveled.
The commissioners voted unanimously to approve the rezone request by the Bishop family and granted variances to reduce the required buffer width on the 4.82 acre tract, allow a flat roof on the grocery store, and allow a two-story building to have a footprint larger than 6,000 square feet and tenant space larger than 10,000 square feet in the B-1 zoning district.
Townley, IMI Rezones
Townley Family Partnership LLLP was before the Commission on Tuesday asking for a rezone of 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.
 |
| Wills (Left), Townley 1/6/2026 |
Jeff Carter with Carter Engineering Consultants, represented Townley Family Partnership at the meeting, but Tony Townley, one of the founders of Zaxby’s restaurant company and the owner or managing member of Townley Family Partnership LLLP, was in the audience.
Also present was Russell Wills, who manages Townley Family Partnership properties, but neither Townley or Wills spoke.
Carter said that much of the property, particularly to the north and east of the Townley tract, already is developed as residential, and “So the zoning fits very well within the context of the surrounding property.”
Carter also said Townley accepts the county-stipulated 10-year moratorium on development of the property.
No one other than Carter spoke in favor of or opposed to the rezone. The Commission voted unanimously to approve.
The Commission also unanimously approved a request by Industrial Property Management LLC to modify two requirements of an existing rezone for the property it has purchased in the Gateway Technology and Business Park on the edge of Bogart.
The Commission agreed to reduce the required parking for warehouse space and eliminate the requirement for curb and gutter in the warehouse portion of the site.
Jeremy Phillips, Chief Operating Office for IMI Industrial Services Group, which will use the Gateway Park site, said “about 75 percent of our population operate outside of...the square footage of the building, (so) the size of the property simply don't justify the the amount of spaces required per code.”
“We're running 60,000 pound forklifts,” he continued, “and the curb and gutter can present a problem in some situations--moving equipment, fabricated pieces. So, we're just asking for some relief there as well.”
Other Action
Following the zoning hearings, the Board approved a contract with Kevin Price Construction, with offices on Daniells Bridge Road, for a guaranteed maximum price of $4.7 million for upgrade of the Courthouse in Watkinsville.
That facility is only used for court proceedings, now that county administrative functions have moved to the county Administrative Building, and the upgrades are intended to better accommodate current use.
The renovations include security upgrades, adding some offices, adding two courtrooms, expansion of the clerk's office, as well as a move and expansion of the Probate Court Judge’s Office.
“You may want to get some pictures in the Courthouse over the next week,” Daniell joked, “because all that mauve color is going to be leaving. So, if you like the 1990s decor, you may want to get a couple. So, we're going to do some freshening up there.”
The Board also agreed to a $500,000 contract modification with Thomas and Hutton Engineering, with offices in Buford, for design work on the roundabouts on SR 53 Snows Mill Road/Rocky Branch Road and at Rays Church Road/Malcom Bridge Road.
County Administrator Justin Kirouac told the commissioners that the billed amount for additional design work was $544,657 and that the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has agreed to reimburse the county $500,000 for those expenses.
On the recommendation of Board of Commissioners Chair Daniell, the Board agreed to pay Thomas and Hutton only the $500,000 provided by GDOT.
The Board also approved Intergovernmental Agreements with all four municipalities in Oconee County for the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) 2027 referendum, which voters will be asked to approve in May.
Video
The video below is on the county’s YouTube Channel.
I also attended the meeting and made a video recording as a backup. I also shot pictures with a camera. The still images above are from my video and still camera.
The meeting begins at 3:54 in the video.
Discussion of the Townley rezone begins at 7:03 in the video.
The rezone hearing for the Bishop Family rezone begins at 25:32 in the video.
Discussion of the county initiated rezone for the Deferred Tax property begins at 55:00 in the video.
No comments:
Post a Comment