Barnett Shoals development vote and beer + wine postponement
The recent Oconee County Board of Commissioners vote to approve the Barnett Shoals Estates development on Barnett Shoals Road does not bode well for that tranquil corner of the county. This is an area where development has essentially escaped until recent attempts to cram a development on an area where Indians once gathered some 4,000 years ago. The BOC voted to ignore a private architect report on the possible potential historic significance and instead exponentially increase traffic in the area.
A group of residents from Clarke, Oconee and Oglethorpe counties have come together to try and battle the development were successful in getting the Planning Commission to recommend denial, but the Board of Commissioners voted to approve with Chairman Melvin Davis making the tie-breaking vote. Commissioners Luke and Horton voted against it, Margaret Hale and Don Norris voted for it. I should have lobbied Hale and her husband harder at Uncle Floyd's car show last First Friday in Watkinsville.
Now how that template of a 2-2 vote may or may not effect the BOC plans to vote on or ignore the possibility of beer and wine in restaurants in Oconee County outside Watkinsville remains to be seen. The latest gossip shoveled by the Oconee Enterprise newspaper made it seem like there was not going to be a vote for another two years by the BOC. That will be way too late for DePalma's Restaurant near Butler's Crossing.
I respect residents rights to be able to petition their government to address their greivances, but once again I would rather see a vote by those we elected rather than do nothing at all. The conflicting beer and wine situation in restaurants (OK in Watkinsville proper, not OK outside the county seat's one mile city limits circular boundaries) is confusing enough already than needing to snuff out any new chances of quality restaurants coming to our humble county.
A group of residents from Clarke, Oconee and Oglethorpe counties have come together to try and battle the development were successful in getting the Planning Commission to recommend denial, but the Board of Commissioners voted to approve with Chairman Melvin Davis making the tie-breaking vote. Commissioners Luke and Horton voted against it, Margaret Hale and Don Norris voted for it. I should have lobbied Hale and her husband harder at Uncle Floyd's car show last First Friday in Watkinsville.
Now how that template of a 2-2 vote may or may not effect the BOC plans to vote on or ignore the possibility of beer and wine in restaurants in Oconee County outside Watkinsville remains to be seen. The latest gossip shoveled by the Oconee Enterprise newspaper made it seem like there was not going to be a vote for another two years by the BOC. That will be way too late for DePalma's Restaurant near Butler's Crossing.
I respect residents rights to be able to petition their government to address their greivances, but once again I would rather see a vote by those we elected rather than do nothing at all. The conflicting beer and wine situation in restaurants (OK in Watkinsville proper, not OK outside the county seat's one mile city limits circular boundaries) is confusing enough already than needing to snuff out any new chances of quality restaurants coming to our humble county.
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