Officials delay Marshall Square talk

Columbia County officials nixed a plan to update the county zoning board Thursday on recent Marshall Square revisions because of public confusion, a county official said.

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The planning staff intended to inform the zoning board of proposed site plan revisions during a planning commission meeting.

However, county Planning Manager Nayna Mistry said the update was canceled after her department received numerous phone calls from concerned residents near the proposed development on Evans Town Center Boulevard.

The update was listed as an item on the group's March 19 agenda.

Mistry said a story the day of the meeting in The Augusta Chronicle led to confusion about the nature of the information. Some callers thought planning commissioners intended to make a decision regarding the site plan revisions, Mistry said.

Marshall Square is a 47-acre unit development. At the planning commission's Feb. 5 meeting, a vote on a revision to the original site plan separating residential units from retail buildings and eliminating a high-rise residential tower was tabled because of questions by zoning board members and nearby homeowners.

A public work session will be held 6 p.m. Tuesday in the auditorium of the Evans Government Complex on Ronald Reagan Drive.

Planning commissioners are expected to vote on the issue of site plan revisions for Marshall Square at their April 16 meeting.

Developers could make further changes before the April meeting, Mistry said.

In other meeting news, the zoning board approved a preliminary plan for 22 lots on 5.77 acres at the Barrett Place II subdivision off Jennings Road.

Requests were granted to rezone 413, 415 and 417 North Belair Road from professional back to its original zoning, single-family residential, and to rezone more than six acres on Dodge Lane from undeveloped to special district for a church use.