The city of Watkinsville is no longer a perfect one mile circle from the Courthouse. The giant five acre tracts are few and far between these days. Now it is about narrow lots, non-conforming driveways and garage doors, and building where they can or what they can. The city council did their level best to try to take everyone's concerns into account Wednesday evening at the Community Center during their regular April meeting.
City Council memher Brian Brodrick was not in attendance at this month's meeting. New member Mike Huff (below) finally began to come out his shell a bit in describing one of the properties in question. Connie Massey did not say a thing that I remember.
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| Toby Smith listens to Mike Huff discuss the best way out of this zoning mess. |
The Watkinsville City Council faced the daunting task of trying to redo the zoning code in one fell swoop or take each zoning variance individually. The council tabled the motion for changing the zoning about garages and passed the construction permits for the three different jobs that could not have more differences to be in our same city. All the property owners came clutching plat designs and blueprints.
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| Mike Link and Robert Hegge discuss options during an extended zoning chat during the meeting Wednesday. |
Shirley Dean sought a building permit for her single family house at 61 Jackson Terrace. Builder J.W. York wanted to shoehorn in a really nice new cedar ranch house on the backside of the 25 Barnett Shoals tract that will fit very well in the immediate neighborhood of Morgan Manor Estates. Greg Conley wanted to demolish and rebuild the barely visible from the street 23B South Main Street that basically is a garage apartment wired poorly and with asbestos abatement in its immediate future. The only other common bond linking these non-neighboring properties is that the issue of garage doors and even what constitutes a garage door were debated ad nauseum.
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| Code enforcement officer Robert Hegge sought direction from the council for draft language on possible new zoning regulations regarding garages, talking here with Mike Link. Shirley Dean and Mark Campbell are in the foreground of this photo. |
At one point at least six different conversations broke out in many different directions during the meeting trying to determine the fate of garage door alignment as well as proper nomenclature and language for such an attempt at taking care of a zoning change in one hastily considered motion. Cooler heads prevailed and council member Toby Smith stepped up to show some serious leadership in a confusing forum that threatened to spiral out of control.
The ill considered motion was tabled, the construction permits granted (sans garages, later to be submitted as a zoning variance), and the demolition permit allowed after the abatement of asbestos in the site behind the Haygood house.
Code Enforcement Robert Hegge sought direction from the council in proposing draft language to cure all the problems with the zoning. He also investigated a report of an oil spill at a local business and had preliminary contact with a church over a deteriorating property in a glorious old home at the corner of Second and Barnett Shoals Road.
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| Albert W. Ward listens to the Mayor read this letter about the cemetery. Patrick Lang, right, received a rezone later. |
Author and local resident Albert Ward answered questions (well, really received praise from Mike Link) to continue with his visionary view of restoring the Watkinsville City Cemetery with some much needed clearing away of privet and saving of some headstones. This is a very worthwhile endeavor that should be joined by every resident of the city. He will collect more than $4,000.00 in donations to help facilitate this transformation of the important historical treasure.
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| City Clerk Julie Sanders watches Greg Conley approach the lectern with Albert Ward in the foreground, Mike Link and Connie Massey are obscured by the lectern. |
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| Mayor Charles Ivie |
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| Mark Campell, city engineer, did a good job keeping the discussion moving forward. |
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| City Attorney Joe Reitman, Jr. talks to Mayor Ivie hoping to hear some precise language. |
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| Mayor Ivie listens to Reitman with "unintended consequences" wanting to be avoided in any rush to change zoning |
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| Council members Connie Massey and Mike Link listen to Mr. Conley explain his plans for a new garage apartment. |
Four business licenses were approved, including SIBA, Inc. to someone representing Elizabeth Earley for 1011 Industrial Boulevard, Nancy Worley for moving her Main Street Salon to 38 Greensboro Highway, Eric Jensen for his Main Street Business Services, LLC to the old Eric Norris office at 29 North Main Street, and Timothy Shane Lord for his Certified Flooring Solution at 68 Cedar Hill Circle, Apt. 2B. They merely furnish the labor for the flooring jobs.
After the railroad signal was destroyed the other day on McRee Street, Mayor Charles Ivie has instructed Police Chief Lee O'Dillon to begin to determine where big trucks will be allowed in our fair city. Mayor Ivie does not want these big rigs over a ton with three axles to ruin our streets.
15 crape myrtles have been planted around the Community Center and Harris Shoals Park, along with a couple of hundred day lilies, transplanted from the old Golden Pantry site at Hodges Mill Road.
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