The Columbia County Planning Commission voted unanimously during its meeting Thursday to rezone property on the north side of Lakeview Drive in Grovetown for a local concrete company’s administrative building.
The matter was not considered without contention.
“Things don’t match up to me,” Carla Harrison, a resident along Lakeview Drive, told the Planning Commission members. “There’s apparently been a structure built with zero permits from the contractor. It all just screams shenanigans to me.”
Bret Cathey, owner of Dixieland Walls commercial concrete company, submitted a request on Dec. 10 to rezone his property at 1209 Lakeview Drive from a residential agricultural district to special. Cathey submitted the request after seeking a temporary power permit. Once the county reviewed the property for the power permit, it found two container boxes covering over 1,500 square feet, which is an unpermitted structure.
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Cathey had been using the property since 2015 and had already begun construction on an approximately 4,000 square foot metal building to use as an office warehouse.
Planning manager Will Butler noted that Cathey has been using the property for six without complaints from neighbors; that the area lends itself to a variety of uses, including farming; and that both the past, current and proposed use of the property should not be a detriment to the area.
The planning staff’s report recommended approving the rezoning under the condition that Cathey acquire a permit for the unpermitted structure by getting an engineered stamp plan confirming the structure meets present codes.
Cathey, addressing the commissioners, stressed that the building on the property, as well as the accompanying container boxes, are meant for nothing more than storage and occasional administrative work, and that employees would rarely even come to the site.
MORE: Grovetown residents concerned about possible rezoning
Commissioner Al Dempsey noted that there were few grievances from neighbors regarding construction on the property until the sign notifying the public hearing was posted along Lakeview Drive. He further emphasized that Cathey was being a better neighbor by using the property as proposed, rather than selling it to a buyer who might try to develop it.
“In my mind, the fact that nobody’s complained for these five or six years tells me that it hasn’t been causing any problems,” said Dempsey.
Butler also noted, after a question from Chairman Jim Cox, that if the property were rezoned, Cathey’s use of the property, or construction on the property, could not deviate at all from the proposed use presented to the county without him having to apply for another rezoning request.
The Planning Commission voted unanimously in favor of rezoning the property to special district. The matter is scheduled to go before the Board of Commissioners on Jan. 18.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering Columbia County with The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
