Oconee County Development Authority Says County Should Begin Zoning Land To Meet County Plans

The Oconee County Industrial Development Authority is calling on the Oconee County Board of Commissioners to set aside its current practice of rezoning property only when an owner requests the change in favor of advance zoning to reflect county plans for future development.

The IDA is scheduled to deliver a report to the commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday night calling on the county to identify key commercial corridors and “pre-zone all parcels in those corridors consistent with the intended long-term use.”

The IDA says that the county should create districts in what it calls two “commercial-industrial-residential areas” that are defined by U.S. 78 from the Walton County line to the Clarke County line and by SR 316 from the Barrow County line to the Clarke County line.

The county should decide how wide it wants the new districts along these corridors to be and then rezone all land within those corridors based on county land use plans, according to the report.

For further details on the IDA report and on zoning in the county, go to Oconee County Observations.

Pictured is the IDA meeting of Aug. 11, 2014.