An Evans developer is eyeing a parcel in Appling to build luxury storage for boats and residential vehicles.
Meister & Marban LLC has submitted its application to Columbia County requesting to rezone a portion of 0 Ray Owens Road from Recreational Residential (R-4) and General Commercial (C-2) to Special zoning (S-1), to accommodate a new marina and RV holding facility.
Concept plans included with the application show four warehousing units, ranging from 14,000 to 21,000 square feet with 26 to 40 stalls each, along with dozens of mini units, enclosed in private fencing.
The property sits at the intersection of Washington and Ridge roads, 300 feet of frontage along the former and 1,000 along the latter. The request seeks to rezone two of the subject parcel’s roughly 10 acres. The facility is to also include a 20-foot landscape buffer along all the road frontage, and a 50-foot buffer along its borders with its residential neighbors, with access managed via remote-access entry gates.
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The project is not without controversy as Ridge Road area residents already gearing up to oppose the petition. A campaign protesting the development circulated an online Move On petition in February that garnered some 100 signatures as of the writing of this article. signatures.
The applicants acknowledged this response in its project narrative document, stating that Meister & Marban had conferred with residents via door-to-door visits, letters to homeowners and even a public meeting at Eubank Blanchard Community Center.
The document then states that, in consideration of a primary concern among homeowners about increased traffic, the developers consulted with the county’s traffic department to conduct an analysis “which confirmed that a full traffic impact study was not required.”
This analysis showed that the property, under its current zoning, could support a development generating more than 950 vehicle trips per weekday, whereas the proposed storage facility would draw fewer than 100 vehicles each weekday, the narrative says.
The Columbia County Planning Commission is slated to consider the rezoning during its meeting on May 1.
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
