The Columbia County Planning Commission is due for its year in review and multifamily report at its upcoming meeting on Thursday.
This iteration of the planning department’s annual document surveys data on all of the rezoning and variance requests, building permits, concept plans and plats submitted in reviewed, as well as apartment developments, throughout the county in 2023.
Columbia County reviewed 58 rezoning requests last year, according to the report, mirroring its amount in 2019. The highest number of rezoning requests in the last five years was 82 in 2021.
Most of the petitions for rezoning were major revision requests. Some 43% of the total rezonings sought — 25 of them — were change of condition or revision requests.
Out of those 58 requests, eight S-1 Special rezonings were approved, 24 revisions for existing zonings were approved and two that were approved were for new neighborhood developments.
The county approved most of the applications—77%, or 45, to be exact. Eight of them, or 14%, were withdrawn, and four, or 7%, were disapproved.
Per a trend that goes back to 2017, most of the residential units rezoned last year were single-family homes, as opposed to townhomes or apartments, though not by as high a margin as in 2022, which saw more than 500 single-family homes rezoned.
The county approved more than 80% of the requests for new single-family homes in 2023 (though this was 100% in 2022). This has yielded, the report notes, nine concept plans approved for over 350 home lots, 207 new lots currently under construction and more than 560 new lots ready for sale. Of those newly built homes, 545 are single-family homes and 63 are townhomes. Most of the approved townhome projects are located in existing developments, such as Ivy Falls West, Canterbury Farms and Canton Park.
The report’s multi-familysSummary outlines apartment and townhome development in the county, including multi-family sections of planned unit and planned residential developments (PUDs and PRDs, respectively) up to Dec. 31 of last year.
The summary observes the completion of the Heron at River Island apartment complex in Martinez, with 274 new apartment units. While the county issued no building permits for new apartments in 2023, the report mentions that the Premier complex project, which would include up to 300 units, is currently under construction across from the Plaza.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
