The Oconee County Planning Department is recommending that Presbyterian Homes of Georgia be required to build a gravity sewer line along Barber Creek as a condition for rezone of 96 acres on Rocky Branch Road for a proposed continuing care retirement community.
That sewer line would cost an estimated $1.2 million and would require PHG to get easements from 31 property owners, some of whom have been vocal opponents of the rezone request.
The Oconee County Planning Commission voted tonight to accept the request of Presbyterian Homes of Georgia for a postponement of consideration of its request for a rezone of 96 acres on Rocky Branch Road for a continuing care retirement community.
Smith Planning Group, 1022 Twelve Oaks Place, just east of Butler’s Crossing, sent a fax to the Oconee County Planning Department seven minutes before official closing time today asking for the delay on behalf of his client Frank McElroy, president and CEO of PHG.
The Oconee County planning staff has recommended against approval of the requested rezone by Presbyterian Homes of Georgia for 96 acres on Rocky Branch Road and against the special use request to construct a continuing care retirement community on the site.
The staff report, completed on Nov. 30, states that the request to rezone the Autumn Glen subdivision across from Old Waverly for the PHG facility “appears to conflict with the development goals and strategies” the county has established for the area.
Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t ask him when the walking trail at Veterans Park will be completed, Oconee County Parks and Recreation Department Director John Gentry told the Board of Commissioners at its meeting on Nov. 6.
That trail now dead ends abruptly behind the soccer fields on the eastern side of the popular park on Hog Mountain Road west of Butler’s Crossing.
Oconee County commissioners last night asked County Attorney Daniel Haygood and Administrative Officer Jeff Benko to draft a resolution for next week’s meeting that would call for the county to be reunited in a single district in the Georgia House of Representatives.
While Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis expressed doubts about the initiative, Commissioners Chuck Horton and Jim Luke made strong statements of support for such a resolution. Commissioner Margaret Hale also said she wants the county to have a single representative.
The Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board has postponed the dates for approval of a state loan for construction of the 1,400-acre reservoir in southeastern Walton County pending the outcome of negotiations over the language of the loan contracts.
The loan documents as presented to the Board obligate only Walton County to repay the loan, while both Walton County and Oconee County officials expected and want the debt to be split on the agreed-upon ratio of 71/29, with Oconee County the minority partner.
Oconee County Commissioner Chuck Horton has asked County Administrative Officer Jeff Benko to add legislative redistricting to the agenda for the Board of Commissioners meetings scheduled for Nov. 27 and Dec. 4.
Horton told me in email messages from Sunday and again today that he will ask the BOC to endorse an effort to restore Oconee County to a single district in the Georgia House of Representatives.
