Oconee County, GA Politics

Watkinsville City Council member Brian Brodrick talked about connectivity in passing Wednesday evening when taking homeowner Dwayne Wilkes to task for an ill fitting sketch plat designed by Ken Beall and Associates to shoehorn seven houses on a private drive in a narrow farm field. Connectivity is something sorely lacking in a lot of neighborhoods and subdivisions in many areas of Oconee County. Necessity being the mother of invention, the children and young drivers of my neighborhood have taken the problem into their own hands and wheels, driving in between the elbow curve in the road of my street Katie Lane and the cul de sac of the neighboring Taylor's Landing subdivision, right past the cement sewer cover and kind of in between at least four different tracts of property. The tire tracks are visible right there in the sod, but I do not think this is a very heavily traveled road, but given the fact that kids hang out with kids in the adjoining subdivisions, it makes sense that t...

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.

Our chance to halt impervious developers here in Oconee County. And apparently the developer of the shopping center next to Athens Acadmey is going ahead with their law suit, or at least contemplating it, according to the Enterprise website sent twice in a blast this afternoon. Woven brightly, Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. To: oconee@yahoogroups.com From: ppriest@charter.net Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:01:55 -0500 Subject: [oconee] Paving over streams and wetlands -- coming near you! Hello! I have a favor to ask. If you could find time, I think it could REALLY make a difference to write a letter (see the template below) to ask the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to NOT ALLOW a developer to pave over a half a mile of streams and another section of wetlands near the border between Athens-Clarke and Oconee. The permit is still pending. We can stop it! Your objection to such irreversible damage to wetlands has to be mailed -- and it n...

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Daniells Bridge Road Rezone Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:35:22 -0500 From: Lee Becker <lbbecker@mindspring.com> Reply-To: lbbecker@mindspring.com To: lbbecker@mindspring.com Dear Friends, As promised, I've filed a more complete report on the Daniells Bridge Road rezone on my blog. The county is spending $400,000 of taxpayer money to support this office park development. The good news is that the money almost certainly will make the roadway more safe. Contrary to what you might have read elsewhere, however, the $400,000 will NOT eliminate the blind curve. And it is not consistent with the county's plans to eventually create a four-lane loop road around the Epps Bridge Parkway and SR Loop 10 interchange, meaning it is a short-term fix rather than the result of long-range planning. It is pretty ...

More shady dealings uncovered even in the BOC backing out of having a legally advertised hearing. Great reporting as usual by Lee Becker ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lee Becker < lbbecker@mindspring.com > Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 11:10 PM Subject: BOC postpones again a rezone request To: lbbecker@mindspring.com Dear Friends, The Board of Commissioners tonight voted to postpone until Dec. 2 the public hearing on the proposed rezone for nine acres just east of the blind curve on Daniells Bridge Road so the county's public works department can draw up plans showing the county's hoped for improvements of Daniells Bridge Road between the Oconee Connector and Lynn Drive, which is at the center of the curve itself. The Board took the action after the public hearing had been advertised and more than a dozen citizens showed up to speak against the rezone. The date for the public hearing also had been set in legal documents the county filed to settle a laws...

Just in case you wish to focus more locally Tuesday evening during our historic General Election, Lee Becker once again reports about the "roadway to not here" that should hang around this new Board of Commissioners' necks as an albatross unless some serious revision and planning repair and road reformatting is done in a big hurry to the horrible curve on Daniells Bridge Road in what will be our second huge traffic congestion point without any real consideration of the impact in the adjoining neighborhoods and subdivisions. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lee Becker < lbbecker@mindspring.com > Date: Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 4:55 PM Subject: Tuesday Night BOC Meeting To: lbbecker@mindspring.com Dear Friends, The Oconee County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night will vote once again on a rezone request that is linked to a roadway that does not exist. The county's legal advisors have recommended approval of the rezone for property just east of a...

The history and back story, not to mention the consequences of the "done deal" that is the new monstrosity called Epps Bridge Centre - thank to Lee Becker once again. Dear Friends, The scheduled hearing on Oct. 7 for the rezone request for the $76 million Epps Bridge Centre on Epps Bridge Parkway might seem almost to be an afterthought. The state–at the urging of the county–already has decided to build a $26 million roadway to the project. The county, in an effort to facilitate the project, has loaned the state $5 million for right of way purchase for the roadway. That's only part of the story. The county has passed a beer and wine ordinance, the federal government has granted a permit for mitigation of stream damage in Oconee by stream reparations in Greene County, and the local planning staff reviewed the project favorably despite a decidedly negative review by their regional counterparts. The reason Oconee County is so enthusiastic about the project is...

Oconee County has already lost the DePalma's restaurant slated for the new Market Center at Capital Avenue development near Butler's Crossing thanks to the Board of Commissioners not voting on allowing restaurants to pour beer and wine (such as the case for a year now inside the city limits of the county seat Watkinsville). The Loco's is not coming to the development around the corner and a BBQ restaurant has already closed in the same Mander's Crossing development. But there is a wine store there and a Taco Stand is being built in the old Quick Lube place in front of Butler's Crossing. So our Board of Commissioners has evidently succumbed to the pressures of the pulpit and congregations versus taking into consideration the economic development of our county. Now I do not condemn our local churches for making their feelings known and petition the government to address their grievances. I have tremendous respect for our houses of worship out Oconee way, be they so ma...

With an unprecedented period of growth and development in Oconee County comes a large number of houses on the market. The overall infrastructure has yet to catch up with the massive amount of building here in this special section of Northeast Georgia. Three years of building has resulted in a glut of houses on the market, with Oconee's median price pushing over the half-million dollar mark recently. We need sanitary sewage systems for the entire county. No more huge septic fields please. The balloon could soon burst for all of us unless we compile a creative approach to growth and a vision to incorporate it with improved services such as a paid fire department. Keep an eye on the Planning Commission, Board of Commissioners and more as they threaten to mortgage our future with one too many strip malls and cul de sac developments

Anyone (except 3 BOC members and most of the Planning Commission) with a little bit of foresight and knowledge would quickly realize the curvy Daniells Bridge Road cut-through will see a hundred fold traffic increase with each new massive development thoughtlessly shoved down our throat. At least it looks like a traffic light is going into where it meets Experiment Station Road - most Gainesville State College kid drivers know this traffic route now. I wrote the preceeding paragraph but I got the rest of this from Lee Becker via Charlie Baugh. Citizens for Oconee's Future, Inc. P. O. Box 1301 Watkinsville, GA 30677 Following is a message from Lee Becker with information about a rezone on Daniells Bridge Road. More of the same, rezones creating more traffic on narrow unsafe roads. Just another step in our march toward "Developed Land". Those directly impacted by this may want to let our elected decision makers know of your concerns. Charles Baugh Dear Neighbors: As ...