A local developer is looking to start two operations in south Augusta farmland.
On May 31, civil engineering firm W.K. Dickson & Co., Inc. submitted a petition to the city’s planning and development department to rezone seven vacant tracts of land totaling some 553 acres from an Agricultural to Heavy Industrial district. Six of the parcels are on Camp Josey Road, and one is at 4464 Deans Bridge Rd. in Blythe.
W.K. Dickson applied for the rezoning on behalf of Camp Josey Property Group, which owns the property, and is seeking to start a soil mining operation as well as construct a facility for recycling wood, asphalt and concrete.
“The topsoil comprises of sandy dirty consistency which makes growing plants and other vegetation quite difficult on the site,” said the planning department’s staff report on the rezoning request.
At the Augusta Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, neighbors of the property came to oppose the rezoning.
“I’m concerned about the noise and concerned about the other things that are going to be taking place in the repurposing of these materials, whether they’ll be odors or chemicals or other things that will affect the enjoyment of that property,” said Wayne Lanier, who has a home a few hundred feet from the site of the proposed soil mine. “I live in Richmond County, and I know that there are some neighbors that have large parcels, or have the adjoining properties, and they’re concerned too.”
One of those neighbors is Hephzibah resident Diane Posey, who owns three doublewide mobile homes in the area.
“I have a concern for the children that live in those mobile homes,” said Posey before the Planning Commission on Wednesday. “What is it going to do to the environment? Am I going to be able to keep somebody in that property that I have?”
Posey stressed her concerns further by noting, as the planning department’s staff report did also, that part of the site of the proposed soil mine and recycling facility is immediately south of the Augusta-Richmond County Landfill.
W.K. Dickson project manager Jeff Holland represented the company at the meeting. He admitted that the recycling facility, which is to specialize in processing demolished materials to be repurposed and resold, is likely to produce noise, but that the buffers on the development should address those concerns.
Regarding environmental concerns, Holland emphasized the state protocols required to build such facilities on the property.
“It will be permitted through Augusta and the state of Georgia as necessary,” said Holland about the recycling facility. “And also, the soil excavation operation will be permitted under a mining permit with the state. Part of that permit is that that area will be revegetated once it’s done.”
The planning staff recommended approving the rezoning with conditions, including a condition negotiated between Holland and the commissioners and added during the meeting, stipulating that the hours of operation for the facilities would be between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Commissioner Sonny Pittman motioned to push the item to the Planning Commission’s September meeting.
“I think that something this important that’s a major project should be postponed and give everybody a chance to get together,” said Pittman, who noted that approximately 60 days would give Dickson and local residents time to address environmental and other concerns.
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to postpone the item to September.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering education in Columbia County and business-related topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
