Oconee County is set to add 54.1 acres to the 828.6 acres in the south of the county already shielded from development through its Farmland Protection program, bringing the total number of tracts covered by this type of preservation easement to 15.
Thad Padgett, Chair of the county’s Farmland Preservation Committee, reported to the Board of Commissioners at its meeting on Tuesday (Oct. 27) that the selection committee is recommending that the farm of Darryl Matthews, 2591 Astondale Road, be added to the list of protected properties.
Padgett told Commissioner Chuck Horton that the Matthews property was not a “target” of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) in its plans for a truck bypass south of Watkinsville linking SR 15 with U.S. 441.
Consultants for GDOT in a stakeholders meeting in August, however, showed Astondale Road as one possible route for the bypass.
The consultants said that the Astondale Road option was the most expensive and would be less effective in reducing overall and truck traffic than the three alternates it is more actively considering.
Three properties further west on Astondale Road owned by Ricky and Kay House already have protective easements funded by the county.
Padgett gave no costs to the county for its contribution to the easement, which also will be funded through the United States Department of Agriculture National Resources Conservation Service (NOCS).
The county funds its Farmland Protection program through its Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, with $100,000 set aside each year for protection of a farm, and the Commission on Tuesday gave tentative approval to that expenditure.
Selected Property
The 54.1 acres to be covered by the easement is part of a larger parcel owned by Darryl and Gloria Matthews of 73.2 acres.
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| Padgett 10/27/2026 |
Only the 54.1 acres qualify as prime soils eligible for protection under the federal NRCS program, Padgett said.
The 73.2 acres abut another 126.3 acres owned by the Matthews, and those acres abut 205.2 acres owned by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Those acres, on Rose Creek Drive, are a University of Georgia horse farm.
The University farm adjoins property owned by Lori Breedlove that also is protected by an easement funded by the Oconee County Farmland Protection program.
In that section of the county, only the Pebble Creek subdivision, next door to the Matthews’s farms, has been developed.
The Breedlove property would be affected by two of the three alternative routes that the consultants have said they are considering for the bypass.
Exchange With Horton
“Growth and development obviously are part of Oconee County's future,” Padgett told the Board on Tuesday, “but protecting agricultural lands is a part of that future as well. The Matthews farm represents that opportunity.”
The Athens Land Trust holds the easements on the acreage currently protected by the county and federal programs. The farmer donates part of the value of the easement but receives the county and federal funds as compensation for granting the easement.
The property remains in the hands of the farmer, but any sale of the property includes the easement preventing it from being developed.
“Is this property anywhere near a proposed GDOT cut through in the south end of the county?” Commissioner Horton asked Padgett when he had finished.
“It's not. No, sir. That's a great question,” Padgett responded.
“I also said it for the record because people will ask me,” Horton said, “whether or not it's a target.”
“This specific easement itself is a conservation easement saying this land will remain in agricultural use forever,” Padgett said.
The commission put final approval of acceptance of spending money on that easement on its consent agenda for Tuesday, meaning it will be approved without further discussion unless a commissioner asks that it be withdrawn from that agenda.
Other Action
At the beginning of the meeting on Tuesday, during the public comment opportunity, Amie Boblitz asked the Board to consider an ordinance “to approve a right of passage for golf carts from my neighborhood on Spartan Estates Drive to Athens Academy on Spartan Lane.”
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| Kirouac 10/27/2026 |
She said her “16-year-old son, who has a driver's permit, was driving our golf cart to school when he was stopped by an Oconee County Sheriff deputy in the school's parking lot and told that he was driving unlawfully.”
The Board did not respond to Boblitz's request.
County Administrator Justin Kirouac told the Board on Tuesday that he expects to ask the Board on Nov. 3 to respond to bids for construction of an EMS Building and Facilities Shop behind Fire Station 1 across Macon Highway from the county Administrative Building.
Kirouac said the project “is currently under solicitation for request for proposals,” which were due on Thursday.
The county is launching its own Emergency Services program at the end of the year.
Video
The video below is on the county YouTube Channel.
Discussion of the Matthews farm begins at 6:44 in the video.
I attended the Oct. 27 meeting and recorded my own video as a backup. The still shots above are frames from that video.
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