The Oconee County Board of Commissioners, in a 3 to 1 vote Tuesday night, turned down the rezone request by Maxie Price’s Deferred Tax LLC for a rezone of nearly 47 acres at the corner of the Oconee Connector and Mars Hill Road.
Commissioner Chuck Horton made the motion for the denial after a public hearing and discussion among the commissioners that lasted nearly 90 minutes. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Mark Saxon.
If the Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night were to approve the requested rezone for a shopping center at the intersection of Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector, it would be the third largest in the county in terms of building square footage.
It also would be the culmination of efforts going back to 1988 to create a shopping at that location.
Commissioners have approved smaller shopping centers on two of the three properties in the intersection in the past, but the property owners never developed the land.
The 10-county Northeast Health District added 371 new cases of COVID-19 in the last seven days ending on Friday, or an average of 53.0 cases per day, and 10 confirmed deaths attributed to the disease, or an average of 1.4 deaths per day.
In the week ending on Friday of last week, April 23, the District had added 413 cases, or an average of 59.0 cases per day, and eight confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19, or an average of 1.1 deaths per day.
Jamie Boswell received a copy of the letter sent Maxie Price by a senior Georgia Department of Transportation official clearing the way for a full access commercial median break on the Oconee Connector before Price did.
Price had written to Georgia Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry on March 17 asking McMurry to confirm that a full access commercial median break would be included in the design of the new interchange at SR 316 and the Oconee Connector.
The Mayor and Town Council of Bishop bypassed the Oconee County planning staff and the county Planning Commission when it rezoned property for a Dollar General earlier this month.
“Dollar General was going to walk away,” Bishop Mayor Johnny Pritchett said in explaining that action.
The city has had an agreement with the county since 1991 calling for the county planning staff to administer its zoning laws and has had a seat on the county Planning Commission since 1982.
An Athens sales and marketing firm has registered a web site to promote the rezoning of 47 acres at the corner of Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector for a major shopping center that would include a Publix.
The web site contains information used by land planner Ken Beall in his presentation to the Oconee County Planning Commission on Monday night, including a concept plan for the project that is different from and at odds with the one submitted to the county for the rezone request.
Centerpiece of the web site is a video that has been shared on Facebook that calls the project “environmentally responsible.”
The Northeast Health District added 64 COVID-19 cases and two confirmed deaths from the disease with the release of Saturday’s Department of Public Health Daily Status Report. Both of the deaths were in Oconee County.
The seven-day rolling average of added cases and added confirmed deaths fell just slightly.
The two Oconee County deaths were of a 62-year-old male with a chronic condition and of a 74-year-old male without a chronic condition.
