Many of the items on the Columbia County Planning Commission’s latest agenda were postponed, or withdrawn, in its meeting Thursday night.
Telecom company Vertical Bridge requested to postpone its request to rezone a portion of 5019 High Meadows Drive from Residential Agricultural to Special. The request, aimed at accommodating the construction of a nearly 200-foot wireless tower, was already postponed from Dec. 21, 2023.
Planning manager Will Butler told the commissioners that the applicants still need to conduct a balloon test at the parcel. The commission voted to approve postponing it, along with its accompanying variance request to permit the cell tower’s height, until Feb. 15.
A conditional use request, and an accompanying variance request, by J. Andrew Tisdale for his vacant property at 201 North Belair Road, currently zoned Professional, was originally to acquire permission to build a new church, but the applicants sought to withdraw without prejudice. The commission voted unanimously to grant the withdrawal.
The commissioners voted to approve a request by Mark Boyd of W.M. Boyd Enterprises to rezone a parcel at 4389 Hereford Farm Road from R-2 Single-family Residential to Neighborhood Commercial. Boyd’s plan entails demolishing an existing home on the property, and combining the tract with property at 4396 Lamkin Drive, to build a storage warehouse and office space. The planning staff’s report notes that the rezoning would place the property in the Evans Town Center Overlay District.
Tillery Park Development submitted a request to revise its planned residential development (PRD) off Baker Place Road. The revisions would include lots on the west side of Canterbury Farms Parkway, near Balfour Drive, to be two estate lots facing north instead of the original eight attached units facing east; and lots on the east side of the parkway would be 13 single-family attached units rather than seven.
The commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the request, with no public opposition.
The board voted in favor of Blackstone Development’s requested major revision of its planned unit development (PUD) at 714 Marsh Point Road, asking to reduce the side setback from 10 feet to zero, allowing space to construct a new home. The subject setback is along a western lot line next to neighborhood greenspace, a sewer main running across the lot with 10 feet of easement lining on either side, constricting buildable space.
Thursday’s meeting was the first for newly selected countywide Planning Commissioner Mark Moody, taking Michael Carraway’s former seat and for District 3 Planning Commissioner Emory Holloway, replacing Russell Wilder. The board re-elected Al Dempsey, who was not present at the meeting, as chair of the Planning Commission, and District 2 Commissioner Marty Jackson as Vice-Chair.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
