A property partially zoned for townhome development may be the site of new commercial space along the Evans side of the Washington Road corridor.
Appling builder Eric Clark has requested to rezone 840 and 850 Sana Drive, a couple of hidden parcels off Washington Road, totaling just under four acres, with plans to develop the property for professional, retail and potentially light industrial use.
The undeveloped tracts are currently zoned Townhouse Residential and C-2 General Commercial. Owned by Cardinal Square Group, the properties are tucked away via Sana Drive, a private road, behind Bojangles and Discount Tire and two other bare parcels.
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The rearmost of the properties, 850 Sana Drive, has an access road to the west connecting to Gibbs Road.
The application requests that Columbia County rezone the sites to C-3 Heavy Commercial, which, unlike General Commercial, includes light industrial uses among its range of conditional uses. Clark notes in the rezoning application that the properties have been vacant for “several years.”
Preliminary plans show 21 units of warehouse space, at 1,216 square feet per unit, each with 448-square feet of office space, with accompanying parking.
Residents and businesses already surround the area. To its east is a retail plaza that includes Toki Hibachi & Sushi and the Señor Mezcal Mexican restaurant, and to its southeast is the Country Place subdivision.
The plans also include the 30-foot buffer required for Heavy Commercial zoning, along with a six-foot privacy fence surrounding the property. The application requests that the road connecting to Gibbs Road remain zoned R-2, and that Sana Drive, connecting to Washington Road, remains C-2.
The Columbia County Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the rezoning in its meeting on May 2.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
