Oconee County, GA Politics

Oconee County Observations: Presbyterian Homes of Georgia Wants to Relocate Pr... : Needs Rezone and Variance Presbyterian Homes of Georgia has submitted plans to the Oconee County Planning Department that would shift its ...

The bookstore at Gainesville State College's Oconee County campus expanded long after I toiled thirteen hour days there during the first couple days of each semester back in the heady days of the start of Facebook when you still needed a .edu email address to get on the social networking site in say 2006. Wayne Ford of the Athens Banner-Herald wrote his typical comprehensive yet not boring history of the area and captured the flavor of the farm field without sitting in a cow pie. Most Oconee County residents have never laid eyes on the actual campus as it is just beyond the point of view off the Oconee Connector/Experiment Station Road down Bishop Farms Parkway. I am glad the Board of Regents has worked with Dr. Penny Mills of GSC~Oconee and the Oconee County Planning Commission to expand that campus. The larger long range and short range expansion plans of that campus need to center on possible back entrance or possibly exit only right on to the 441 Bypass or at least the sound ...

Not sure if it is even slightly related, but State Representative Bob Smith sent me a State of Georgia flag and some political memorabilia yesterday. The Planning Commission voted to recommend denial of his "subdivision of a subdivision" yesterday in a tract in Northern Oconee County.

Subject: Daniells Bridge Rezone Again Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:17:59 -0400 From: Lee Becker <lbbecker@mindspring.com> Reply-To: lbbecker@mindspring.com To: lbbecker@mindspring.com Dear Friends, A rezone request is back before the Planning Commission (Oct. 20) and the Board of Commissioners (Nov. 4) because the county has decided not to fight a suit filed against it in Oconee Superior Court by owners of land on Daniells Bridge Road who want to build yet another office park. The BOC turned down the rezone request in May of 2007 after more than 400 homeowners in subdivisions on Daniells Bridge Road opposed it. As part of the agreement, the county agreed to bring the rezone request back before the Planning Commission and before the BOC. The rezone is predicated on yet another roadway that does not exist. For details, go to my blog at http://...

Elected officials have the right to sue their local government. That much being said, I think that the Oconee County Government would do themselves a favor if they were to appoint some other people to the Planning Commission. Mr. Marshall was appointed to the Planning Commission and I think it is long past time for some new blood on the Oconee County advisory committee with the most power.

Why would we want a grocery store in the midst of the busiest traffic thoroughfare in Oconee County? This is what you get when the more narrow minded members of the Oconee County Planning Commission continues to drive our economic engine into the ground. Sure the zoning and planning may actually conform to the prospect of such a project, but for once does the neighborhood have anything to say about what stores get rammed down their throats? Bruce MacPherson, Bill Yarborough and George Rodrigues are the three members of the Planning Commission who vote with some regularity against moronic development in our community, and kudos to them for doing that. Someone trying to win an insurmountable write in campaign might consider such populist issues to propel their campaign, For those who do not know the background, there are plans afoot to build a grocery store shopping center somewhere near LaVista Road and Highway 441 here in Oconee County. This is near both the campus of Athens Academy a...

Thanks to Lee Becker for filming this and filling us in Dear Friends, The proposed rezone of 68 acres on the north side of SR Loop 10 on Epps Bridge Parkway for the proposed Epps Bridge Centre was approved by the Planning Commission last night with only Bruce MacPherson of Bishop dissenting. Questions were asked about impervious surface, wetlands mitigation, traffic, and amount of asphalt to be put down. Representatives of Oconee 316 Associates had a variety of answers. Commissioner Mike Maxey expressed concerns that the conditions being recommended by the planning staff on the amount of development might be overly restrictive and could put the developer at significant financial risk. The planning staff is concerned because the road access to the development--the proposed Oconee Connector extension--isn't built, or even started. In the end, Maxey seconded the motion for approval, which included the restriction on the amount of the development that could be completed before the new ...

I am always quick to condemn the Planning Commission as slash and burn developers hell bent on paving every inch of sod or clay left in Oconee County, so I need to acknowledge when they do something reasonably good. A large chunk of sparsely populated Bishop, Georgia will NOT be developed according to this story in Athens Banner Herald . Good for them. But when will the local authority realize we are in an economic recession and more and more home sites may be graded and paved, but we have a huge surplus of some 3,000 lots not developed and getting larger by the day? At least the votes are getting a whole lot closer at 4-3 than the usually 6-2. I think it is not wise to have developers such as Dan Arnold and Travis Marshall on the Planning Commission because it creates the impression of a huge conflict of interest at the very least. Let them run for the Board of Commissioners or any other public body, but I think they should be replaced at the next convenient appointment time.