Commission Struggles With Application Of Lot Size Requirements

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday night to impose a minimum lot size of 1.5 acres on a 10.1-acre residential subdivision off Mars Hill Road and in a split vote agreed to allow a 42.5-acre residential subdivision off Ruth Jackson Road to have lots of only 1 acre.

The Board struggled with a request to create three lots out of a five-acre tract off Moores Ford Road near the Apalachee River and ended up tabling the request without a resolution.

The owners were asked to explore a way of adding another acre to the tract so that each of the three new lots could be two acres in size.

In what is likely to be a comment the Board will hear again in the future, the developers of the two larger projects said the county’s new lot size requirements for residential developments make it financially difficult to build homes in the county.

The three zoning requests on Tuesday’s agenda were underway when the Board on July 2 more than doubled the minimum size for a lot without county sewer in the commonly used R-1 Single-Family Residential District zoning category.

The change was from 30,000 square feet to 65,340 square feet, or from .69 acres to 1.5 acres.

For more on this story, with a video of the Board of Commissioners meeting, please go to Oconee County Observations.