Shopping Center On SR 316 Needs A Buffer Variance

When, in July of 2016, Scott Boswell wanted to move his electrical and communications supply store from Athens to nearly 30 acres at the intersection of Mars Hill Road and SR 316, he needed to have the land rezoned from its agricultural to a highway business classification.

As a part of the rezone application, Boswell submitted a concept plan showing a 9,600 square foot building at the rear of the wooded property, near McNutt Creek.

The building was to be connected to Mars Hill Road by a 24-foot-wide asphalt access drive through undeveloped land.

The Board of Commissioners approved the rezone and set as a condition that the sides of the building should be a minimum of 25 percent brick, stone or stucco.

When Boswell came before the county’s Development Review Committee with his actual development plans in November of 2017, however, he showed a very different location for that building.

The 9,600 square foot building would sit just back from SR 316, Boswell’s plans said.

The Development Review Committee approved those plans, setting in place a series of negotiations about the now rather large development planned for the nearly 30 acres.

Those negotiations are scheduled to continue on March 5, when Boswell will be back before the Board of Commissioners seeking a variance in the county’s buffer requirements for the 19-lot commercial subdivision he plans to build on that site.

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

Pictured: Boswell Supply 2/17/2019.