Shopping Center Proposal At Mars Hill/Connector To Be Reviewed

Developers are moving forward with a planned $50 million commercial development at the intersection of the Oconee Connector and Mars Hill Road that would include a Publix, a gas station with convenience store, and a bank in its initial phase.

In a second phase, the project concept plan shows restaurants, hotels, retail outlets, and an auto dealership.

The primary access to the property will be off the Oconee Connector, but the concept plan also shows five entrances off Mars Hill Road, including a major one opposite the current DaAndra Drive intersection with Mars Hill Road.

The developer is proposing dedicated turn lanes and a signal at the primary entrance, which is to be at the existing median break opposite the reconfigured entrance to the old fire station on the Connector and just north of the existing QuikTrip.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted a provisional permit on July 31 to Publix Supermarkets Inc. and the Sembler Corporation, a shopping center developer out of St. Petersburg, Fla., to dredge and fill a tributary of Barber Creek that flows through the property.

Property owner Deferred Tax LLC, with Maxie Price of Lawrenceville as the contact, is asking for the needed rezones for the three parcels that make up the just less than 47-acres to be used for the project.

The request is scheduled to be reviewed by the Oconee County Planning Commission at its Dec. 14 meeting and to go before the Board of Commissioners for the needed rezones on Jan. 5.

For more on this story, please click through to Oconee County Observations.