Leaders of Save South Oconee, in their first public meeting last week, gave an upbeat assessment of their efforts to communicate their view that the proposed routes for a truck bypass connecting SR 15 with U.S. 441 would negatively affect the south of the county.
Jason Smith, co-chair of Save South Oconee, said he and his colleagues have reached out to elected officials throughout the county and, with the exception of officials from the city of Watkinsville, those officials have been responsive.
“Let the world know, we do want to save south Oconee,” Smith said, encouraging the 27 people who turned out at the Bishop Community Center to continue those outreach efforts. “It is worth saving. There's no other place like this in the world. That's a fact.”
Smith spent much of the 30-minute-long meeting reviewing the impact on the south of the county of the three alternate routes for a SR 15 truck bypass of Watkinsville that the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) released at a Public Information Open House on April 16.
Smith said GDOT is planning a meeting with “stakeholders” sometime in August for an update on those plans. Representatives of Save South Oconee have not been invited, he said.
One of the proposed alternate routes would go through property owned by Lori Breedlove. The Athens Land Trust holds a nondevelopment conservation easement on that property, financed in part with county funds.
Demetrius Jordan, Executive Director of Athens Land Trust, and Joe Barbaree, Director of Land Conservation for the Trust, were in attendance at the July 21 meeting.
The existence of such an easement “has stopped previous discussions about bypass proposals,” Barbaree said.
Summary Of Save South Oconee Position
“Save Southside Company is dedicated to preserving and protecting the agricultural heritage, natural resources, and rural character of the south side of Oconee County,” Smith said of the group that formed as discussion of the truck bypass heated up.
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| Smith 7/21/2026 |
“We are not against progress,” Smith said. “We are against unnecessary and unwarranted destruction of agricultural land and open spaces.”
GDOT has proposed three routes for a bypass, Smith said, “none of which seem very palatable to me or anyone involved, and none of which seem to go through the city of Watkinsville.”
“As it stands now,” Smith said, “DOT has not selected a route from any of the three proposed routes.”
“In fact, they are now considering routes within the city limits,” he said. “We feel that's a positive sign. We are certainly encouraged that we want city problems to have city solutions.”
Watkinsville city leaders have asked for the truck bypass to relieve traffic congestion on Main Street (SR 15) in the center of the city.
GDOT also is considering a no build option, Smith added.
Reaching Out
The county’s Comprehensive Plan has “designated the south end of the county for agricultural preservation,” Smith said.
“The bypass has the potential to open the flood gates to the large-scale development to the south of Oconee,” Smith said. “We've talked to several commissioners, and they are concerned if this goes through, it effectively will run the county comp plan out. And I don't think that's anything anybody truly wants.”
“And that's where it is critical that we get out there and try to stop this in its tracks,” he said.
“We've approached every elected official pretty much in this county,” Smith said. “Some have been very helpful. Some of them are here tonight.”
Oconee County Commissioner Chuck Horton and State Rep. Eric Gisler were in the audience.
Horton on May 5 voted in favor of a resolution by the Board of Commissioners asking GDOT to consider alternatives to the three proposed routes.
Gisler, at that May 5 meeting, said he had told GDOT that “there's significant community pushback here” to the alternates presented at the Public Information Open House, but he also said “Clearly, there's a need to address traffic in Watkinsville.”
“We have reached out to the city of Watkinsville,” Smith said at the July 21 meeting. “So far, that dialogue has not been very fruitful.”
“GDOT is currently trying to schedule a stakeholder meeting with the Board of Commissioners and the city of Watkinsville sometime in August,” Smith said.
“When we get more information on that, we will pass that along,” he said. “Currently, it's seeming like it's going to be a closed meeting.”
“The DOT has basically gone back to the drawing board with what we can get,” he said. “They are very tight-lipped on what they will do or what they're proposing to do.”
Farmland Protection
Thad Padgett, chair of the county’s Farmland Preservation Committee, joined Barbaree at the podium at the July 21 meeting when Smith had finished his prepared comments.
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| Barbaree 7/21/2026 |
Through its Farmland Preservation Program, the county has contributed $1.5 million toward purchase of easements covering 829 acres on 14 farms in the south of the county. The federal government has contributed $3.5 million.
Padgett encouraged farmers to apply for the program.
The first farm covered by the program–in 2004–was the Breedlove farm on Colham Ferry Road.
The Athens Land Trust holds the easements on that and on the other 13 farms that are part of the county program.
A member of the audience at the July 21 meeting asked Barbaree if granting an easement to the Athens Land Trust as part of the county program “would protect it from eminent domain.” Eminent domain can be used to acquire property for road construction.
“It goes through the NRCS process,” Barbaree said, referring to National Resources Conservation Service, which distributed the federal funds for farmland protection.
“The lease is held by the Athens Land Trust and Oconee County,” Barbaree said. “It's highly likely you'll never face an issue.”
“It has stopped previous discussions about bypass proposals,” he added.
The resolution passed by the Board of Commissioners on May 5 states that 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.”
Video
I attended the meeting of Save South Oconee on July 21 and recorded the video below, which I have uploaded to my Vimeo channel.
None of the speakers used a microphone, and I did not put a microphone on any of them, since that would have made it hard to hear audience interaction.
Unfortunately, the air conditional in the room produced constant background noise during the meeting.
I was able to eliminate much of that noise in editing the video, but the audio is still very bad.
Fortunately, the transcription from Vimeo is quite good, and I was able to use that in writing this story.
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