The Girl Scouts are looking to rezone its Camp Tanglewood property in Columbia County, with aims toward some more development, according to an application submitted to the county planning department last week.
The Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia (GSHG), which is headquartered in Gainesville, Ga., has requested to rezone its 183 acres at 4687 Columbia Road, in Martinez, from R2 Single-family Residential to S-1 Special.
The hilly, heavily wooded property has been a summer camp location for Georgia-based Girl Scouts for more than 80 years, and is substantially developed with a camp lodge, cabins, office and classroom buildings, an infirmary, a house for the park ranger and a barn. Each year, GSHG holds its annual S’morevivor Trail Run and Team Challenge there, and in 2010 the site appeared in an episode of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
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The present CSRA service unit office of GSHG is in a leased building on Shartom Drive in Richmond County. The application’s accompanying project narrative notes the organization plans to build a new office on the Tanglewood land.
Currently, the plans entail a 5,000 to 6,000 square foot structure, near the front of the property with ingress and egress all off Columbia Road. Alongside offices, a portion of the space would be used for a “Dream Lab,” a multi-use common space for badge work, STEM studies and other activities.
The narrative also indicated that the GSHG ultimately aims to add more camper cabins, and make improvements to the lodge and other areas of the campsite.
The project for the timeline projects plans be submitted to the county by June of this year. The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the request on Feb. 15.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
