Politics & Government
Planning Commission Rejects Shopping Center Proposal
The Oconee County Planning Commission voted 8 to 0 to recommend denial of the shopping center at Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector.
The Oconee County Planning Commission voted 8 to 0 on Tuesday night to recommend to the Board of Commission that it deny the rezone request for a major shopping center at the intersection of Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector.
The Commission took its vote after a relatively short discussion following a public hearing in which citizens voiced strong opposition to the project, raising concerns about the environmental impact of the project and about traffic created by it.
Much of the discussion that did take place focused on the proposed main entrance to the shopping center off the Oconee Connector
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Kevin Letch, senior development manager for the Sembler Company of St. Petersburg, Fla., told the Commission that his company did not accept the Oconee County planning staff recommendation that the entrance be limited to right-in, right-out traffic and that he wants a full intersection with a traffic signal.
Grace B. Tuschak, senior planner with the county, had forwarded to the members of the Planning Commission late on Thursday an email message from Georgia Department of Transportation District Traffic Engineer Jason Dykes, rejecting the Sembler proposal.
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In response to questions from members of the Commission, Guy Herring, director of Planning and Code Enforcement, confirmed that the Georgia Department of Transportation had concluded that the Sembler proposal is inconsistent with the state’s plans to elevate the Connector to fly over SR 316.
The Commission’s recommendation for denial now goes to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, which is scheduled to make is decision at its meeting on Feb. 2.
In completely unrelated news, the county is now seeking a new Director of Elections and Registration following the resignation on Friday of Fran Leathers, who will become customer service manager for Dominion Voting Systems, the Denver company that provided the voting equipment introduced in Georgia for the 2020 elections.
For more on this story, please go to Oconee County Observations.