Columbia County has been one of the fastest growing areas in the state of Georgia, but county officials need to keep in mind that growth comes with challenges.
Too much growth happening too quickly can spoil the very things that make suburban living so attractive.
Only people over 50 remember when Washington Road was two lanes from Furys Ferry Road clear out to Lincolnton. Club Car aside, the areas that are now Mullins Crossing and Kroger Shopping Center on Columbia Road were fields where cows grazed.
People who move into areas such as Windmill Plantation should know that growth will continue in those areas making them less and less suburban in nature, however, the people that move out into the more rural areas of the county should be able to have the reasonable expectation that the land will remain largely rural.
This is why two recent news articles drew our attention.
It cannot be accurately stated that city of Harlem officials pulled a sleight of hand on the county at large when they agreed to annex 736 acres stretching from Clary Cut Road to North Fairview Drive, but it also would not be accurate to state they were forthcoming to all interested parties about the land deal happening quietly behind the scenes.
In response to the story the Augusta Press ran earlier this week on the annexation, the City of Harlem posted on its Facebook page an annexation ordinance will be discussed at the April Harlem City Council meeting and a public hearing will be held at the May Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. The post stated legal notification was submitted this week, along with signage being posted this week.
As this deal has progressed, no one has addressed what the consequences of adding nearly a thousand new houses in terms of school availability, traffic issues or even how the people living in the new development will have their sewage processed and at what cost.
This week also brought about the story about Meister & Marban LLC submitting its application to Columbia County requesting to rezone a portion of 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.
The conceptual 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 developers of the massive facility, which will bring along with the boats noise and light pollution, are wanting to plop this storage center down in the middle of an area where the residents enjoy wide open spaces with no neon in sight.
It is not fair, in our opinion, for people to buy land, build a house and invest in the enjoyment of “country living” for decades only to have a massive storage facility get built next door.
Once the door is opened on urban creep, it never stops. Before long, next to the boat storage facility will be a Dollar General, a Jiffy Lube, a car-wash and a handful of fast food joints.
Columbia County officials need to revisit the consolidation issue to curb city encroachment and also to listen to the taxpayers living in the rural areas and pay them heed when they say they want their rural area to stay rural.
The days of cows grazing in a field just off of Washington Road may be long gone, but Columbia County can’t afford to whittle away what makes the county so charming and a great place to raise a family.
