Tempers flared at the Columbia County Planning Commission meeting Thursday evening, as the commissioners considered — and residents protested — a controversial rezoning request near Grovetown’s Grimaud Place subdivision.
Mark Barinowski had applied to change a 14-acre tract of his property at 2278 Wortham Lane from R-A Residential Agricultural to S-1 Special Zoning, which restricts a property to a specific use. The parcel has been the site of a Christian radio station since the Barinowski family acquired the property in 2001. Mark’s father, Clarence Barinowski, received a building permit to expand the radio station in 2004.
According to the narrative document accompanying the request, the rezoning to S-1 is to bring the property into compliance and to allow for expansion of other businesses there, including the addition of a 1,000 square foot building to be added adjacent to the existing small office.
The narrative also states that the existing businesses will increase from the current eight to 15. After discussions with the planning staff, Barinowski reduced this number to 10 employees.
The parcel sits off an easement accessed via Wortham Lane within the Grimaud Place neighborhood. Offices for other businesses owned by the Barinowskis have been on the property since at least 2005, when the family applied to rezone it to S-1 to accommodate the radio station, offices and tower storage equipment.
“We are not open to the public,” said Mark Barinowski, responding to unease among nearby residents about potential increases in traffic resulting from the expansion of the businesses. “There is not a need, for the last 20 years, for anybody from the public to come and see us for any type of business. This is a real estate management that I do personally. There’s no ‘storefront’ that people are driving up to; as a matter of fact, we have… ‘no trespassing’ signs at the front keep people from coming in.”
Barinowski also told the commissioners that he thought the county’s rejection of the 2005 rezoning request was primarily due to traffic from freight truck deliveries. He noted that since then, the family has built a warehouse in McDuffie County for that purpose, and that trucks have not been coming through to the business office in Grimaud Place for about a decade.
This did not assuage concerns from residents in Grimaud Place, however. The government building auditorium was crowded with many of Barinowski’s neighbors in opposition to the request, and the back-and-forth between the residents and the commissioners elicited outburst from among the audience.
“We went through this 18 years ago to try to keep them from going to S-1,” said Mark Kaune, one of the residents. “Yes, he said it’s going to be limited to 10 people on his property. How can you keep that not multiplying?”
Furthermore, attorney Hammad Sheikh, speaking on behalf of Grimaud Place, argued with the commissioners against allowing the Barinowski operations to rezone not merely to comply with zoning ordinances, but to expand use of the property.
“For 20 years [Barinowski] has been in violation of the code,” said Sheikh. “The county has pointed out that he’s in violation, we know that he’s here to correct that violation. The question is, is it going to take another 20 years to comply with the code that you put in place right now?”
Another Grimaud Place resident, Daryl Stewart, went before the commissioners to claim Planning Commission Chairman Al Dempsey contacted Stewart and Tony Hogan, another opposing neighbor and a mutual acquaintance, to convince them in favor of the rezoning. Dempsey insisted the claim was not true.
Dempsey, according to county records, owns a residence on Louisville Road near the subject property.
“I just don’t think it’s fair,” said Stewart. “We’re up against the wall when he can solicit on behalf of Barinowski, against us. We don’t have a chance.”
Vice Chairman Michael Carraway, reiterating an argument vocalized among the commissioners that an S-1 zoning would be the ideal solution to address the complaints of Grimaud Place, suggested that Barinowski limit further the scope of allowed business operations in the S-1 request.
Barinowski agreed to limit the businesses allowed to accounting, auditing, bookkeeping, sales real estate management and the operations of the radio station. Planning added the modification to the conditions of its recommended approval.
Despite vocal protests, the Columbia County Planning Commission voted unanimously in favor of the rezoning request. The Board of Commissioners is scheduled to hear the item in its meeting on May 3.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
