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Planning commission approves rezoning and variance for 2.36-acre commercial parcel off Crouch Road
Summary
Spalding County Planning Commission approved rezoning application 25‑07Z and related variance 2516V to allow a small commercial building with fuels sales and a restaurant on a 2.36‑acre parcel, subject to landscaping and buffer conditions. The items move to the Board of Commissioners for consideration April 24.
The Spalding County Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve application 25‑07Z on a 2.36‑acre parcel at 7 Crouch Road, rezoning the site to a Planned Development District (PDD) to allow commercial uses including a restaurant, fuel sales and a convenience store. The commission also approved a companion variance, application 2516V, to waive the PDD minimum lot size requirement.
The approvals follow a presentation by the applicants, Capita Perohed and Imelda Mello, who told the commission the proposed development is intended to serve the surrounding industrial employment area. "We are proposing a restaurant complex with more of a sundry store and some fuel," said Capita Perohed, describing a single, roughly 4,800‑square‑foot building divided between a sit‑down restaurant and a convenience store and two pump canopies, including a larger diesel canopy for trucks.
Commissioners and staff emphasized buffering and site design because the lot sits near the entrance to a larger industrial development. A representative of the Industrial Development Authority flagged the site as the development’s "front door" and asked about a visual buffer. David (county planning staff) explained the site plan shows a retention pond at the front, a planned building setback and required landscaping. The applicants said the scheme includes roughly a 75‑foot landscaped buffer and that a fence and evergreen hedge could be used adjacent to the retention pond if needed.
The commission tied its approval to conditions about landscaping and setbacks. One commissioner made the motion to approve "with the conditions that we've discussed regarding the buffer and landscaping." A second explicitly noted the approval should be "contingent upon compliance with section 17(b) stated in the staff report." The planning commission recorded the votes as unanimous for both the rezoning (25‑07Z) and the variance (2516V); the clerk indicated counts were not read aloud at the hearing.
Per the planning commission, both items will be heard by the Spalding County Board of Commissioners on April 24 at 6 p.m. Staff said a landscape plan and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) addressing detention‑pond maintenance will be required during permitting and construction review.
Why it matters: the commission framed the project as a service parcel for the surrounding light‑industrial area rather than a new industrial use, and it imposed conditions intended to reduce visual and operational impacts on neighboring industrial and residential properties.
Implementation and next steps: the applicants will proceed to the Board of Commissioners hearing on April 24, and staff will review the required landscape plan and the MOU during subsequent development review.
