The Columbia County Board of Commissioners voted on a rezoning request on South Belair Road during its meeting Tuesday night, resulting in a tie and effectively thwarting an attempt to develop a liquor store.
Malay Patel and landowner John Capes had petitioned to rezone three acres at 102 South Old Belair Road and 4730 Columbia Road from General Commercial to Community Commercial, as well as for a conditional use permit, for Patel to build a 12,000 square foot package store plus additional commercial space.
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The Planning Commission voted to recommend denial of the requests on May 2, amid objections from residents of the neighboring Brookwood Townhomes subdivision.
In Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Connie Melear noted that “at least four homeowners” in the Brookwood neighborhood further expressed their opposition, and asked attorney Michael Padgett, speaking to the board on behalf of the rezoning applicants, what he had to say to their concerns.
Padgett replied that Patel and Capes have “done everything required in the… current zoning requirements,” citing that the subject space is within permitted distance of the nearest church, treatment center and school—the latter being Savannah River Academy.
Commissioner Don Skinner motioned to deny the request. He and Melear both voted to deny, while Commissioner Alison Couch and Chairman Doug Duncan voted against that motion, causing a tie and effectively killing the motion. As a result, the applicants would have to reapply for the rezoning request after six months.
The board approved rezoning a four-acre parcel off Washington Road to make way for office warehouse space. FlexCo LLC and property owner Cardinal Square Group requested rezoning 840 and 850 Sana Drive from Townhouse Residential, General Commercial and Single-family Residential to Heavy Commercial for its office warehouse complex totaling more than 34,000 square feet.
The applicants’ engineer indicated that a detention pond on the subject property is likely to be expanded to take on the additional runoff, though neither final grading nor stormwater plans have been prepared yet, according to the planning staff’s report.
Neighboring residents Joy Smith and Douglas Kuehl spoke against the request citing concerns about flooding from the detention pond.
Duncan suggested adding a condition to approval that the pond be cleared before development, to mitigate flooding issues. The board voted in favor of the request unanimously.
The board ultimately voted to postpone a rezoning request from Residential Agricultural to Special zoning at 7131 Bill Dorn Road. Jake Martin, of Top Nock Archery, sought to rezone the land for use as a youth archery practice and training area with the landowner’s permission.
Frederic Carpenter, owner of Carpenter Airport—a landing strip adjacent to the subject property—spoke to the commissioners opposing the rezoning, expressing concern that stray arrows may accidentally reach his land or even hit animals and horses on the property. Carpenter produced an arrow that he claimed landed from the direction of the subject parcel. His primary request was that if the rezoning were permitted, the required fence be extended.
Martin claimed otherwise, saying the arrow was from a crossbow, rather than a bow, from another neighbor. Martin also told the commissioners that he may prefer they disapprove his rezoning request, and that the space be used for free coaching rather than part of his commercial enterprise, due to the prohibitive cost of building the required fence and other conditions.
Duncan posited that the best course of action would be to postpone the item so that the commissioners could get a legal opinion, before making a decision that could possibly render Martin unable to undertake any archery enterprise on the property. The board voted unanimously to postpone.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
