A Parker Creek Road property owner is asking the Oconee County Planning Commission to grant him a special use permit so he can lease 14,400 square feet of his property to Verizon Wireless for construction of a telecommunications tower.
Verizon says the new 190-foot monopole will allow it to “greatly improve existing wireless service” in northwestern Oconee County, including the community of Eastville and along Malcom Bridge, Hodges Mill and Hog Mountain roads.
The Oconee County Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee voted 6-5 on Tuesday night against giving further consideration to a Transfer of Development Rights program for the county.
The Tuesday vote, after 165 minutes of discussion across two meetings, countered the unanimous recommendation of a 16-member citizen committee that had studied TDR programs for six months.
The Oconee County Citizen Advisory Committee on Land Use and Transportation Planning has extended an invitation to members of the county’s Transfer of Development Rights Committee to meet jointly on Tuesday night at the Community Center in Veterans Park.
The Land Use Committee issued the invitation after a discussion of nearly 90 minutes on Aug. 13 in which individual members expressed confusion about their mandate, opposition to a TDR program on the mistaken belief that it involves the federal government, and frustration with the Committee leadership.
Oconee County has now issued at least some form of building permit for nearly two-thirds of the total commercial space in Epps Bridge Centre, the new shopping mall at the Oconee Connector and SR Loop 10.
Most of those permits are for the core of the shopping center, which preliminary site plans indicated would make up more than 80 percent of the total mall space.
Oconee County Clerk Jane Greathouse just before noon on Friday added a new item dealing with appointments to the Georgia Bioscience Joint Development Authority to the agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting .
Earlier last week she added to the agenda a water and sewer project update by Utility Department Director Chris Thomas. Thomas is to review recently completed water and sewer projects, those underway, and future projects
Fairway Outdoor Advertising removed its three signs at Ruth Jackson Road and U.S. 78 earlier this month and has illuminated the third side of its LED sign at Epps Bridge Parkway and the Oconee Connector.
Despite what county officials said would be the case, however, the county will see no increase in sales tax revenue as a result of the new, large illuminated signs Fairway has installed at two locations on Epps Bridge Parkway.
The contrast on Saturday between Oconee County’s Epps Bridge Centre and the shopping centers on Atlanta Highway in Athens-Clarke County was striking.
Epps Bridge Centre was celebrating the official opening of three Gap Inc. stores, and cars filled the parking lot in front of the stores later in the day.
The parking lot in front of the closed Old Navy store in the Athens Promenade on Atlanta Highway was nearly empty.
