Commissioners To Consider Shopping Center At Malcom Bridge School

Oconee County commissioners Tuesday will take up a request to modify zoning for a shopping center on land between Lenru Road and Malcom Bridge Road just south of the Malcom Bridge Middle School.

The 7.5 acre tract has been zoned for commercial use since 2004 but has not been developed and is surrounded by residential and school properties.

The current owner, Lenru Development LLC, is seeking to modify the plans approved for the development in 2004 with the goal of building a shopping center primarily for restaurants and retail outlets but also for other commercial tenants.

Thirteen citizens from a crowded room of opponents spoke against the proposal at the Planning Commission meeting last month, but that body voted 5 to 2 to recommend that the Board of Commissioners approve the requested zoning modifications.

Six people at that same meeting spoke against a request by Benson’s Old Home Kitchens LLC for a reduction in the required buffer between heavy industrial and residential uses at its plant in Bogart. The Planning Commission voted 6 to 0 to recommend denial to the Bogart City Council.

Benson’s has withdrawn its requests, and the item has been removed from the Bogart City Council agenda for its Sept. 10 meeting.

The agenda for the Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday, which begins at 6 p.m. at the Courthouse in Watkinsville, contains a presentation by state officials on the state’s Hotel/Motel Tax and its use for creation for a Convention Visitors Bureau as well as additional zoning requests.

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

Pictured: Map Showing Location Of Shopping Center.