The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night officially and unanimously asked the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to slow down its planning for a truck route linking SR 15 and U.S. 441 south of Watkinsville.
The request came in the form of a resolution passed by the Board after a crowd of a just more than 100 gathered in the Commission Chamber of the county Administrative Building in anticipation of Board action on GDOT’s stated plans for a bypass.
The resolution asks GDOT to study the SR 15 corridor, which flows along Main Street, inside the city limits of Watkinsville, and to examine intersections inside the city to see what “operational improvements could be made to reduce traffic congestion.”
It also asks GDOT to consider any SR 15 bypass of Watkinsville “in conjunction with” a potential U.S. 441 bypass of Bishop and to consider a bypass location within the city limits in addition to the three alternate routes under consideration that are south of the city limits.
The Board said it “wishes to have a meaningful and productive dialog” with GDOT before GDOT moves forward with the project.
At the meeting on Tuesday night, Commissioner Amrey Harden first read the resolution the Board had drafted in advance. He was followed by 12 people, most of whom spoke in opposition to the three alternate routes that GDOT presented at its Public Information Open House (PIOH) in that same Commission Chamber on April 16.
Included among the speakers were several members of the Wilkes family, whose farms would be crossed by Alternate Routes 2 and 3 as the proposed routes leave SR 15 opposite Flat Rock Road and head west to cross Colham Ferry Road, Old Bishop Road, and then U.S. 441 south of Thomas Farm Road.
“This land in south Oconee County tells a story,” Katie Wilkes told the Board. “It tells of generations of hard work and sacrifice...And now to hear that someone wants a highway cut through it. It’s hard to put into words what that means.”
Origination Of Board Action
The Board had put on its agenda for the meeting on Tuesday night a discussion of the SR 15 truck bypass after four citizens from the south of the county addressed the Board at its agenda setting meeting on April 28. The four stated opposition to the plans presented by GDOT at the April 16 PIOH.
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| Harden 5/5/2026 |
Sam Edgemon told the Board at the April 28 meeting that his analysis of GDOT data led him to estimate that the proposed bypass would divert only about 1 percent of current traffic moving through downtown Watkinsville.
Subsequent examination of those GDOT data showed that the volume of traffic flowing through downtown Watkinsville on Main Street decreased from 2019 through 2024, the most recent year for which counts are available.
The resolution drafted and passed by the Board did not dispute that “a significant amount of traffic traversing Oconee County from the south, including large truck traffic, utilizes SR 15 to reach U.S. 441.”
And it acknowledged that “the City of Watkinsville has expressed a desire to create a bypass to route truck traffic from SR 15 to U.S. 441 south of Watkinsville.”
The resolution also states that “an east-west connector bypass could require significant land acquisition and potential displacement of certain residential, agricultural, and/or rural properties.”
“Oconee County prides itself on its agricultural and rural land uses as indicated by the unchanged designation of such in the Oconee County Comprehensive Plan,” the resolution reads.
The resolution requests that GDOT “considers” a list of requests “before proceeding with any decisions regarding establishing route locations.”
The resolution asks GDOT to study the SR 15 corridor inside the city limits, look at the impact of the Inland Port in Gainesville, combine a consideration of the SR 15 and U.S. 441 bypass of Bishop together, and consider a fourth route inside the city limits south of McRee Street.
The “Oconee County Board of Commissioners opposes any route that would result in the displacement of farmland protected by the Oconee County Farmland Preservation Program,” the resolution reads.
Citizen Comment
The first person to address the Board once Harden had finished reading the resolution was Alan Bell, who identified himself as Mary and Lamar Bell's grandson and whose family farmland would be crossed by Alternate 1, which runs just south of the city limits.
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| Gisler Before Board 5/5/2026 |
“GDOT should return to the drawing board and conduct proper due diligence,” he said. “Routes should not be drawn across people's homes, properties, and protected conservations without proper justifications.”
State Rep. Eric Gisler, who represents the area in House District 121, followed Bell and asked to be able to report on conversations he has had with GDOT.
“In my short time in this office, I've learned that I can call a lot of government offices and get a call back,” he said. “So I've taken it upon myself to do that, and I did have a couple of meetings last week with employees of GDOT, including the director of program delivery and the District 1 for GDOT.”
Gisler said those he spoke with “made it very clear to me that they're very much in the alignment phase of this project. And for those of you who are learning like me, alignment means they're trying to find something that's going to make the most sense for everyone involved.”
“So they have funding up through the concept phase,” he said. “There is funding available for right of way, which is the property purchase once they get to that alignment.”
“I let them know that there's significant community pushback here” to the alternates presented at the PIOH, he said.
“Clearly, there's a need to address traffic in Watkinsville,” he continued. “Anybody who's driven through a rush hour knows that. There are very valid questions...whether the current proposals will actually resolve those concerns of the traffic congestion.”
First Wilkes
Gisler was followed by Bishop Mayor Drew Kurtz, who said “I think everybody on the south side of the county is worried about what's going to happen here. The best thing we can do, I think, for Bishop and Watkinsville, is to find one plan that would consider what we're going to do with both 441 and 15 at the same time.”
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| Katie Wilkes 5/5/2026 |
Katie Wilkes told the Board that “I appreciate you all letting us come and talk to you. I'm sure you'll hear a lot of the same things, but it means a lot for us to have the opportunity to say it out loud.”
“I'm a Florida import,” she said, “but I married into the Wilkes family. I never imagined that when I married into that family, I'd also be marrying into a way of life rooted so deeply in the land.”
“I've learned to embrace what it means to be part of a farming family, and I wanted to share that with you tonight,” she said. “On this land, I've learned how to raise chickens and pigs and cows. I've even learned to grow vegetables, sort of them almost edible.”
“My children and their friends, and even the local high school baseball teams, come over to my father-in-law's property, and they've enjoyed the benefits of that land,” she said. “Fishing, hunting, exposure to farm life, caring for animals and the soil, and seeing the fruits of both.”
“Please let the Department of Transportation know that you can't draw a line through something like this and expect it not to matter,” she said. “I implore you, truly, please let the Department of Transportation know that a bypass through farmland is not possible in this county.”
“I am not an active farmer,” Diane Border said, “which is probably good for agriculture. But I cherish my five acres, and I cherish and support in many ways the local farmers in this county.”
“Clearly, the immediate impact would be on affected farms,” she said. “In my experience and observation, a bypass, a major thoroughfare, inevitably, eventually, maybe not immediately, maybe in 10 years, 20 years, even 30 years, will foster commercial development,” she added.
“And that, in the long run, would absolutely devastate the nature and character of all residents in South Oconee, not just the farmers,” she said.
Another Wilkes
“I'm one of the Wilkes's that everybody keeps talking about,” Claire Wilkes said when she came to the microphone. “The proposed bypass in Watkinsville isn't just lines on a map to my family. It's a threat to a place that has shaped generations of our lives.”
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| Brandon Wilkes 5/5/2026 |
“Two of the proposed routes cut directly through our 150 acres,” she said. “Land that holds the memories of my childhood and the childhoods of my brother and cousins. Days spent exploring, learning, and growing in a way that only that kind of open, untouched space allows.”
“My family strongly relies on farming income, and we always have worked on this land,” she said. “By building this bypass through our farmland, it will substantially be taking away income for my family.”
“All of this risks solving one problem while creating many more for families like mine and for the community as a whole,” she said. “What stands to be lost can't be replaced or recreated somewhere else. It's not just property, it's our history, our roots, and a way of life that deserves to be protected.”
“Most of my young adult life,” Brandon Wilkes said, “I tried to run from this farm. No matter how hard I ran, it pulled me back.”
“Not because I couldn't do anything else, not because I wasn't smart enough to do anything else,” he said, “but because it's in me. The passion is in me. The desire to farm, to carry on the legacy is in me.”
“Thank you all for the resolution,” he said. “Thank you all for letting us talk. Thank you for hearing us, and thank you for giving us this opportunity to continue what we're trying to do as a family, as a community.”
Video
I carved the 30-minute video clip out of the full video I recorded of the Commission meeting.
I will write a subsequent report on the proposed budget released at the beginning of the meeting.
The clip below begins with Chairman John Daniell explaining why discussion of the proposed truck bypass was on the agenda.
Daniell is followed by Harden’s reading of the resolution.
Citizen comment followed and leads to the vote of the Commission to send the resolution to GDOT.
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