Furys Ferry Road may have some growing pains accompanying its growth. On Thursday, road construction crews prepared for expansion near the Willow Lake subdivision. One liquor store at the intersection of Furys Ferry and Evans to Lock roads was permitted to open by the Board of Commissioners, instead of the three in the area whose owners filed.
And some applications scheduled to go before the commissioners in May indicate more bustling seems to be ahead for the corridor in the throes of a four-lane widening project.
On Thursday, April 21, the Planning Commission approved two rezoning requests, both to change from single family residential to professional district, in order to build on undeveloped parcels at 629 and 633 Furys Ferry Rd.
The former parcel, submitted by owners Dawn Shackelford and Olden Ganus III, is for a proposed two-story, 4,000-square foot building to be used as a hair salon.
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The Planning and Zoning staff noted that the proposed salon would, if rezoned, be within the Corridor Protection Overlay District, an overlay zone regulated by county ordinances (in this case, Section 90-99 in the Columbia County Code of Ordinances) set up along major arterial roads to “protect these primary transportation corridors through standards for screening, landscaping, and aesthetics,” according to the county government’s website.
Immediately to the north of this property, at 633 Furys Ferry, is the location of a proposed law office, also two stories and over 4,700 square feet, submitted by owner Coosawhatchie Investments.
Both sites, which would share a right-in right-out, were approved by the Planning Commission with the conditions that they provide a photometric plan to ensure their lighting doesn’t prove a nuisance to nearby West Lake, and that they both be connected to the county sewer.
The Planning staff also observed, relating both locations to the Vision 2035 Future Development Map, that both properties fall within what’s called the Furys Ferry Road Professional Corridor. Planning defines this in the staff reports for both rezoning requests as a “thoroughfare in the Neighborhood Area that connects Activity Centers,” intended to “accommodate professional office uses without encroaching upon adjacent residential neighborhoods.”
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Both rezoning requests are scheduled to go before the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, May 3.
Hindu temple BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir submitted a rezoning request to rezone 837 and 825 Furys Ferry Rd. from single family residential to special district, in order to make way for expansion of its facility to include parking and recreation areas. The request is scheduled to go before the Planning Commission on Thursday, May 5, and then before the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, May 17.
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.
