The Oconee County Board of Commissioners asked the members of the county’s Industrial Development Authority to study the feasibility of changing the county’s approach to zoning as a way to attract industrial development to the county.
The Development Authority recommended instead that the county should create one or more industrial sites each between 25 and 75 acres in size and that the county should make sure those sites have needed infrastructure for development.
The Hard Labor Creek Regional Reservoir Management Board has decided to hold an official reservoir groundbreaking ceremony at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 4 at or near the reservoir intake construction site on Social Circle-Fairplay Road in Walton County.
Invited guests will include Gov. Nathan Deal, though Project Manager Jimmy Parker told me on Wednesday that the governor’s office has asked that the governor’s attendance not be included in any formal press releases.
The Oconee County Planning Commission voted 6-4 on Monday night to recommend to the Board of Commissioners that it deny Robert W. Strickland a permit to construct a communication tower on his property just outside the Eastville community in the northwestern part of the county.
About 15 people turned out to oppose the tower, saying it would adversely affect the value of their properties. They asked that the tower be built on commercial property rather than on the Strickland property, which is zoned for agriculture.
The Georgia Department of Transportation has put off until February the letting of bids for Oconee County’s Mars Hill Road widening project.
Brent Cook, District One preconstruction engineer, told me in a telephone conversation today that right of way acquisition by the county is “running a little behind schedule,” making it necessary for GDOT to delay by five months the expected bidding for the $25.8 million project.
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.
