The regional long range transportation plan now before the public for review makes significant changes to the current document and provides for both pedestrian and bicycle travel on two key roadways in Oconee County.
Both bicycle and pedestrian “facilities” would be added to Hog Mountain Road from Mars Hill Road in Butler’s Crossing to U.S. 441, passing the Presbyterian Homes complex now under construction at the Hog Mountain Road intersection with U.S. 441.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday night to impose a minimum lot size of 1.5 acres on a 10.1-acre residential subdivision off Mars Hill Road and in a split vote agreed to allow a 42.5-acre residential subdivision off Ruth Jackson Road to have lots of only 1 acre.
The Board struggled with a request to create three lots out of a five-acre tract off Moores Ford Road near the Apalachee River and ended up tabling the request without a resolution.
The economy in the country, the state of Georgia, and the region is very strong, 10th District Congressman Jody Hice and Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler told a gathering of Oconee County Republicans last week.
That strong economy is threatened, both speakers said, by the shortage of labor to fill the jobs the strong economy is producing.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners formally approved property tax rates for the county on Tuesday night, adopting a millage rate of 6.686 for the unincorporated parts of the county and 7.626 in the county’s four cities.
The millage rates are unchanged from a year ago, but they represent a tax increase because property in the county has been assessed at a higher value this year than last, reflecting the inflationary forces in the market.
All four of the applicants who appeared before the Oconee County Planning Commission last week had a similar request.
Each had begun the rezone application to convert land now zoned for agriculture to residential use before the county changed its regulations on minimum residential lot sizes, and each wanted to follow the old regulations rather than the new ones.
Watkinsville alone among Oconee County’s four cities will hold an election this fall, with two candidates competing for the mayor of the city and two more competing for Post 2 on the City Council.
Incumbent Watkinsville Mayor Dave Shearon and Bob Smith, a real estate agent, filed paperwork last week qualifying for the mayoral contest.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners has not yet gotten around to appointing its new advisory committee on transportation.
Commission Chair John Daniell, has said, however, that its first order of business will be to review the 282-page report presented to the county by the Georgia Department of Transportation earlier this year.
