Planning and Zoning Decisions Split BOC

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Argument after argument arose in the Board of Commissioners meeting on July 9th involving Zoning issues.

Early in the meeting, citizen Mark Cochran spoke against a rezone to agriculture for one of his neighboring properties, which the council considered in a 2-1 vote to approve the rezoning with Chairman Paris being the opposition.

Another citizen repeated Mr. Cochran’s arguments against another rezoning with the Dean’s residence set to rezone to residential with conditions to allow for two horses which was approved by the council unanimously.

The majority of discussion, however, came on the heels of the item for RFF Investments, the backer behind Deep South Farms Wedding and Events, rezone for conditional use to allow for a large venue, essentially allowing more than 50 cars. Recall that this is actually the second time this has come before the Board of Commissioners. Last time the item was sent back to the planning commission to be re-advertised as it didn’t meet the advertising requirements for the Board.

The story actually begins in the Work Session earlier in the day as Attorney John Capo stepped forward to speak and proceeded to ask the Commissioners to, once again, remand this item back to planning and zoning as he felt it still didn’t meet the advertising requirements of public notice according to his interpretation of the Georgia Statute. He then asked the Commissioners to not vote on the issue due to legal actions being taken.

After this, the attorney made comments to seemingly allegate Chairman Paris should recuse himself based on his information that a previous statement by the Chairman said he would have a conflict of interest. He also made comments to suggest one of the Commissioners, later discovered to mean Commissioner Crouch, should recuse himself based on information that Mr. Crouch’s daughter was employed for photography by Deep South Farms and would constitute a financial interest.

Both members of the Board were quick to deny these statements to which the Attorney replied he didn’t want to get into a legal debate.

Though Mr. Capo did apologize about the “bad information,” he was quick to comment that he had prefaced his statement with a type of disclaimer, ‘this is the information he was furnished.’ To which Chairman Paris replied that in a public forum statements have a certain credence and he took offense to such allegations based on information Mr. Capo was not certain of.

Others stood to speak against Deep South Farms, stating complaints such as noise pollution from the events and traffic from cars that could be 500 or more. Another complaint was offered pertaining towards the use of fireworks at the events, to which Chairman Paris stated he understood and could see how constant fireworks could become a problem. Discussion even came up about what constitutes an event. What types of events could be held there?

Debra Jones, with Deep South Farms, responded by saying they have not had an event over 39 cars previously and do not ever see 500 cars coming into their events. At one point of discussion, she even said it would be agreeable, though not ideal, for a 100 car restriction. Robert Mosley offered an invitation for people to come to the next event with a noise meter and even offered to share a glass of tea with those who came.

At the official meeting later, many people stood to reiterate their statements and offer opinions for the Board’s Consideration. Commissioner Miller offered his own opinion on the case stating he disliked the idea of the issue being so complicated including legal action making it hard to speak about the issue. Though, he ultimately said he preferred to keep the venue as a small venue.

Through all the discussion and arguments, the final decision sat with the Board who voted 2-1 to Approve the Large Venue with the stipulations that there be no fireworks at events other than on holidays and Events to be defined as Weddings, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Shower, Reunions, Recitals, Dances, Ethnic and Religious Celebrations, and Academic, Corporate, Social, and Business Activities.

The opposition vote came from Commissioner Miller who had stated before the vote,

“I think there is a different way of solving the problem and I would like to pursue that.”

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