Planning board rejects one rezoning, approves one

It was a numbers game concerning rezoning at Thursday night's Columbia County Planning Commission meeting.

In one proposed rezoning, the numbers 60 and 90 were in question.

Residents of Hereford Farm Road west of Blanchard Road told commissioners that rezoning shouldn't be allowed near their homes because it would allow for a residential development with too many homes - about 90 - on small lots.

The current zoning allows a development with about 60 homes - a figure most of the residents said they could live with.

Most residents said they feared having 90 homes developed on the proposed 61.8-acre site at 4933 Hereford Farm Road would only bring more road congestion to the area, increase the school population and cause safety problems.

Mark Ivy, an engineer speaking on behalf of the developer, Hereford Farm Development LLC, told planning commissioners the development would be profitable only if it had 90 homes.

Charles Allen, a Hereford Farm Road resident who said his parents sold the land in question, expressed his opposition to the development Thursday night, saying he thought the developers were going to keep the land's zoning unchanged at Residential-1 instead of requesting that it be changed to Residential-1A with a residential cluster overlay.

"I'm not against anybody making money,'' he said.

"Our opinion is zoning is meant to protect neighborhoods.''

In the end, the only numbers that mattered were the votes of the planning commissioners, who voted 5-0 to deny the rezoning.

Another rezoning, again involving a question about the number of residences planned for a development, also went before commissioners Thursday.

A developer for a 11.36-acre site off Murray Road in Martinez requested a rezoning change from Residential-3 to planned unit development.

The R-3 zoning allowed 44 residential units. However, the developer, Paul Peterson, asked for 61 units.

Dozens of neighbors from the area attended the meeting to say that having 61 residences would only create more traffic problems in the area.

The commission asked whether a compromise was possible, but residents in the audience shunned the idea, grumbling to one another.

This time, a compromise was approved as the planning commission voted 5-0 to grant the rezoning with the following restrictions: that there be no more than 52 homes built and that a rear drive access be constructed for the homes.

In other action Thursday night, the planning commission also denied approval of a preliminary plat for a phase II, section II of Wind- mill Plantation, on the north side of Hardy McManus Road.

The commission voted 5-0 against the plat after hearing the county's staff say storm water runoff concerns needed to be addressed first.

All issues will now go before the county commission for consideration of final approval at its next meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Evans auditorium.