During its monthly meeting on Monday, Augusta Planning Commission voted in favor of a residential development in south Augusta.
DDG Development requested to rezone just over four acres along 2355 Windsor Spring Road from General Business (B-2) to Single-family Residential (R-1A) to make way for a proposed new neighborhood comprised of more than 230 detached homes and townhomes. The developer aims to split this smaller parcel, part of some 62 acres total that it aims to develop, into two tracts, rezoning one for residential use.
The planning staff recommended approval of the request, though one of the conditions for its recommendation was requiring that the homes have at least four alternating facades, and that none of them have more than 10% vinyl siding. Burt Fine of Cranston Engineering, speaking to the board on behalf of DDG, said this requirement may prove difficult for the developers designing the townhomes.
“The intent of this project is to provide a wide range of product types hitting a lot of different price points for buyers of all ages and income levels,” said Fine. “So as far as the townhomes go, we were fine with not including vinyl siding on the single family detached but a vinyl could be permitted on the attached housing.”
Planning Director Carla Delaney made a case for the use of vinyl siding, as opposed to brick or even fiber cement—also known as Hardie board—siding.
“In my opinion, there’s a place for vinyl siding,” Delaney said. “A lot of the challenges with vinyl siding have to do with the installation and the quality of it. The warranties don’t fix the installation problems.”
Delaney and the commissioners ultimately agreed on changing the condition to 30% rather than 10%, and the commissioners would all vote to recommend approval, save for Donnie Smith, who abstained.
The Planning Commission would also approve two rezoning requests from Parker’s Kitchen, making way to develop new locations of the convenience store at 3054 Washington Road and 2311 Windsor Spring Road, and the request by CG Sibley Mill, on behalf of the Canal Authority, to rezone the historic property from Light Industrial (LI) to B-2.
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On Tuesday, as polls were closing, Columbia County Board of Commissioners, alongside voting down a variance request along Evans to Locks Road, voted in favor of mixed-use development proposed by Dr. John Bojescul, off Columbia Road, across from Patriots Park, that would include a sports training facility and a natatorium with a 50-meter swimming pool and seating for up to 2,000 people.
Bojescul’s rezoning request sought to change the undeveloped 21 acres from Residential Agricultural (R-A) to Special (S-1). The Columbia County Planning Commission had voted to recommend it, albeit with the condition that the proposed hotel be excluded from the plans, to which Bojescul did not object.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
