The owners of the five-acre tract on the west side of Jimmy Daniell Road and the north side of Silver Leaf Road are asking the county for the third time since 2006 to make zoning changes to allow them to develop the property commercially.
In 2006, they asked that the property, which abuts Silver Leaf subdivision, be rezoned from its agricultural classification to Office Institutional Professional District (OIP) to build an office park containing four, two-story office buildings totaling 40,800 square feet in size.
The Board of Commissioners turned down the request. The owners sued and then withdrew the suit without prejudice.
In 2014, the owners asked the county to rezone the property to an Office Business Park (OBP) District so they could build six, single-story office/warehouses totaling 46,155 square feet in size.
The property owners withdrew that application in 2015 after the county planning staff recommended against the rezone, saying it was “not compatible with nearby residential properties.” Citizens from Silver Leaf subdivision and the surrounding area had mounted a massive campaign in opposition.
The property owners, taking a different tack, will be before the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night.
They are not asking that the property be rezoned from its current Agricultural (AG) District, but rather they are asking for a Special Use Approval for construction of a 20,000 square foot contractor’s office/showroom/warehouse building with 5,000 square feet of outdoor storage.
Although the county’s Land Use and Zoning maps for the area have not changed since the 2014 rezone request, the county planning staff is recommending approval of the Special Use, saying it “appears to be in harmony with the area.”
Citizen opposition to date has been minimal.
Switch In Plans
The narrative for the request for the Special Use Approval by current property owner, Oconee Medical Properties LLC, makes no reference to the zoning request it submitted in 2014 or the one submitted by previous owner The Edward Sumner Co. and Joe Milligan in 2006.
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| Drawing Of Front Of Warehouse From Zoning Narrative |
Ken Beall, land planner representing Tim Burgess and Gavin Griffith, owners of Oconee Medical Properties, also did not reference the earlier rezone requests in speaking before the Planning Commission or offer any explanation for the change in strategy for getting approval for the warehouse and office with outdoor storage.
The county Planning Staff Report, written by Planning Manager David Webb, also did not reference the previous zoning requests.
Webb did note pointedly, however, that the “outdoor storage” being requested by Oconee Medical properties is not permitted in an Office Institutional Professional District (OIP).
Webb stated that “outdoor storage” is allowed by right in the OBP District, and only in the existing Agriculture District with Special Use Approval.
The current site plan shows one roll-up door on the north side of the building and four on the south side, facing Silver Leaf Road. Road access to both sides of the building is shown.
The site plan does not show how the storage area behind the warehouse will be accessed.
Earlier Zoning District Request
The Edward Sumner Co. and Joe Milligan had sought an OIP classification in 2006, and Oconee Medical Properties had sought an OBP classification in 2014.
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| From Oconee County Unified Development Code |
On the county’s list of Zoning Districts, OIP falls between residential and commercial categories, and it is the Zoning District the Board of Commissioners most often approves to transition from residential to commercial development in B-1 General Business District and B-2 Highway Business District.
OBP is a more intense use than B-2 Highway Business, falling between B-2 and the I Industrial District, the most intensive zoning district in the county.
Webb noted in his report that the “outdoor storage” being sought by Oconee Medical Properties is allowed in OBP by right but in “the B-1 and B-2 Districts with Special Use approval only.”
The AG District, a low intensive district, is an anomaly, and Webb writes that “Construction Contractors, Builders and Developers, with outdoor storage” are permitted in the Agricultural (AG) zoning district with a Special Use Permit.”
Webb also wrote in his report that “Staff analysis indicates this area along Jimmy Daniell Road is no longer an agricultural area. This (requested) use is a low intensity commercial use that appears to be in harmony with the area.”
“Based on the character area designation of Regional Center,” Webb wrote, “a desirable pattern of development for the area would include mixed commercial uses to support adjacent residential developments. The proposed development aligns with the intent for this character area.”
Staff Report In 2015
Planner Brad Callender, in his report on the 2014 request by Oconee Medical Properties LLC for a change in zoning for the five-acre tract from Agriculture (A-1) to Office Business Park (OBP), had reached just the opposite conclusion.
Callender, who has left the Planning and Code Enforcement Department to pursue other interests, wrote in the staff report dated March 6, 2015, that “This requested zoning district and land use is not compatible with nearby residential properties.”
Callender said “The proposed office/warehouses meet the underlying intent of the land uses allowed in the O-B-P zoning district, however, developing the site for office/warehouses with loading bays in the front of each building while being located directly adjacent to residential properties does not meet the intent placing high character buildings in attractive surroundings.”
“Based upon the proposed development plan, this request does not comply with the development strategies, goals and objectives for the Regional Center character area,” Callender wrote.
If the Board were to approve the rezone, Callender stated, it should require that “All loading/unloading areas, docks or bays shall be located a minimum of 80 feet from any street right-of-way. All loading/unloading areas, docks or bays shall be oriented towards the interior of the site.”
The rezone request in 2014 did not include an outside storage area, so Callender did not reference such a feature.
Citizen Comment
The request by Oconee Medical Properties was before the Planning Commission on Jan. 20, and, as the meeting got underway, three people near the front of the room were engaged in a loud conversation that lasted several minutes into the meeting.
The request by Oconee Medical Properties was the first rezone item on the agenda, and when those wishing to speak against the request were asked to come forward, Harold Thompson, who had been involved in that conversation and who, with his wife, owns one of the properties that backs up the five-acre parcel, rose to speak.
“I don't think a 17,000 square foot warehouse belongs there,” he said. “It just doesn't seem to fit with the nature of the property and the nature of the way that our subdivision's been developed.”
He was followed by Jon Mills, who said he was concerned about the entranceway to the subdivision.
“We just would like to protect our residential nature of our driveway, our entrance way into the neighborhood by protecting the canopy,” he said.
“I believe that this is the best that we're going to get for our neighborhood,” Mills said, referring to the proposal, “and we're not opposed to those requests. We're not opposing it--or I'm not opposing it.”
The third person involved in that conversation at the beginning of the meeting did not speak.
Matt Rogers, who came in late, said he lives in adjoining Deerbrook subdivision and “our greatest concern is the traffic control coming through...These large facilities, distribution centers, 18-wheelers, those are a big concern.”
Residents of Silver Leaf were among those protesting possible increased traffic through their neighborhood at a hearing held by the Georgia Department of Transportation on Jan. 22 about the ongoing reconstruction of the Jimmy Daniell Road and SR 316 interchange.
Though these are not designated routes, during construction, traffic will be able to move through Silver Leaf and Dearborn subdivisions to use the open SR 316 interchange at Julian Drive and through Meriweather Drive and the Jennings Mill neighborhood to Virgil Langford Road and the Oconee Connector interchange with SR 316.
The property Oconee Medical Properties currently is developing is on Virgil Langford Road.
Planner Beall said in his narrative for the rezone that construction on the office and warehouse is expected to start this month or next and be completed in 12 months.
The Planning Commission on Jan. 20 recommended that the Board of Commissioners grant the Special Use Approval.
Citizen Complaint In 2015
The zoning packet for the 2015 rezone request by Oconee Medical Properties contains 52 pages of emails and letters sent to the county opposing the rezone request.
Included is a three-page letter from Mills, who spoke at the Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 20 offering at least some support for the current proposal.
Mills identified himself as treasurer of the Silver Leaf Home Owners Association in his 2015 letter and said that the Silver Leaf Home Owners Association was “strongly opposed” to the rezone request.
“(T)he property values of each of the 80 homes in Silver Leaf will be negatively affected if the proposed commercial warehouse/office space is allowed,” Mills said in that letter.
“(T)he Owner again fails to recognize that the proposed commercial warehouse/office space in the middle of a subdivision IS NOT consistent or compatible with any of the neighboring uses and zoning,” he continued.
2015 Staff Report
According to Callendar’s staff report on the 2014 rezone request by Oconee Medical Properties, a single-family residence was located on the five-acre parcel, officially located at 1691 Jimmy Daniell Road, from 1949 to 2005.
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| Representative Drawing Form 2014 Rezone |
“In 2005, the current property owners razed the single-family dwelling without obtaining a demolition permit,” he wrote. Oconee Medical Properties LLC was listed as the Property Owner in the report.
“After the dwelling was razed in 2005,” the staff report continues, “dirt has been routinely excavated from the site without proper soil erosion and sedimentation run-off controls.”
Callendar noted that the Board of Commissioners had denied a rezone request to change the property from A-1 to OIP for an office park in 2006 and reported the subsequent legal action.
Oconee County Superior Court records show that Edward D. Sumner Co. and Joe Milligan filed suit against the county on Dec. 6, 2006, claiming that the action by the Board of Commissioners was “unconstitutional, illegal, null, and void, constituting a taking of Plaintiffs’ Property in violation of the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”
According to the suit, the county planning staff recommended approval of the rezone, but the Planning Commission did not.
Of the five commissioners listed in the suit, only Commissioner Chuck Horton is on the Board that will hear the request from Oconee Medical Properties on Tuesday night.
On Nov. 18, 2010, Edward D. Sumner Co. and Joe Milligan filed a motion, approved by the Court, to dismiss their complaint without prejudice.
Tax Records
According to county property tax records, Doug Allen and Tim Burgess purchased the five-acre property at 1691 Jimmy Daniell Road in January of 2005 for $320,000 from Mary Lela Burger Epps.
Allen and Burger then sold the five acres to The Edward D. Sumner Co. and Joe Milligan in June of 2005 for $425,000, according to the records.
The Sumner Company and Milligan are the developers who sought the rezone in 2006, according to Callender’s report and based on the legal documents from the lawsuit.
In June of 2014, The Edward Sumner Co. and Joe Milligan sold the property back to Oconee Medical Properties LLC for $340,355. The tax records label that as a “questionable fair market value sale.”
The listed address for Oconee Medical Properties in the tax records for the Jimmy Daniell Road property is 1272 Moons Grove Church Road, Colbert, in Madison County.
Tim Burgess, who served on the Oconee County Board of Education, is not the Tim Burgess of Oconee Medical Properties LLC.
At the beginning of the Board of Commissioners meeting on Jan. 27, Commission Chair John Daniell said the county had received a letter from the applicant for a rezone and variance for a seven-building office/ warehouse/ flex space complex on Daniells Bridge Road.
Daniell said the applicant was asking the Board to withdraw the request from the agenda on Tuesday, a request, he said, the Board usually grants.
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