Last year, residents near the Mullikin Road area in Evans came up in arms over a planned development on 33 acres in the largely rural area, but the controversy is over. The land has sold and the new owner plans to turn the acreage into an extension of his miniature horse farm.
The controversy began when developer James Blashcke attempted to buy and develop the property. The property is zoned to allow for roughly 30 houses, but Blashcke wanted a zoning change to allow for more than 50 homes.
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Local residents, supported by District 1 Commissioner Connie Melear, successfully got the rezoning request denied. Not only did the residents worry about traffic from a large development, but much of the area contains wetlands, and they argued that putting a high density development in the area would simply be a bad idea. Blashcke responded by filing a lawsuit against the county.
The lawsuit, however, is moot as Blashcke dropped his bid on the property.
James Porterfield of Porterfield Farms in Evans successfully purchased the land in December for $550,000. Porterfield already owns 85 acres nearby where he operates a miniature horse farm.
“We are just going to clean it up and put animals on it,” he says.
While Porterfield was not among the residents who lobbied the commission, he agreed that a high-density development would be inappropriate for the area.
“If I ever built out there, I would build maybe a few estate homes,” he says, “but not any kind of a large development.”
Commissioner Melear is thrilled at the news.
“This is exciting,” she says, “I am sure that the neighbors are going to be very excited to hear that the land is going to remain natural.”
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
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