Athens student housing is spilling over into Oconee County with the construction of the high-density Athens Ridge residential complex just inside the county line on old Macon Highway at White Oak Road.
Zoned for multi-family residential development, Athens Ridge is labeled a townhome and residential condominium development on county site development plans. Those plans show 190 dwelling units on just more than 35 acres of land on McNutt Creek just before it reaches the Middle Oconee River.
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia recorded deed documents in the Superior Court of Oconee County late last month officially transferring 1,055 acres that had been part of the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Resource Conservation Center from the United States Department of Agriculture to the University of Georgia.
As a condition of acceptance, the state agreed to “use the property for agricultural and natural resources research for a minimum of 25 years,” guaranteeing that the acreage will not be developed before 2038.
Developers are preparing two sites roughly a mile apart on the Oconee Connector near its intersection with SR 316.
The Oconee County Planning Department has issued a grading permit and approved the preliminary site plan for Georgia Skin Cancer and Aesthetic Dermatology at the corner of the Oconee Connector and Virgil Langford Road north of SR 316.
Eight farmers turned out last Thursday night for a meeting at the Cooperative Extension Service to learn about the county’s efforts to find farms for its farmland protection program.
The program was chaired by C. Monte Stephens, county agriculture and natural resources extension agent, but the featured presenters were Russ Page and Laura Hall.
Engineers have discovered an old waste pit deep beneath the highway leading to the new Caterpillar plant requiring Athens-Clarke and Oconee County to rebuild the roadway in coming months.
The reconstruction will require closing of some lanes of the four-lane roadway for about two weeks.
Oconee County Code Enforcement issued a permit last week for build out of 1,200 square feet of space at Epps Bridge Centre for SportClips, a haircut salon chain based in Texas.
Earlier this month Code Enforcement issued an interior permit for 4,485 square feet of space for childrens clothing store Carter’s.
The Oconee County Planning Commission tomorrow night is scheduled to review an application for a business zone on farmland on Snows Mill Road near the Apalachee River and an application for a special use permit for a neighborhood church on Lenru Road near Triple Creek Subdivision.
Barton Cartey of 2531 Snows Mill Road is asking the county to rezone just less than two acres of land in an area that is predominantly zoned for agricultural and residential uses so he can continue to operate a wedding hall and reception hall on his property, as he has done for approximately a year.
