Rezoning request for 5 acres in Calvert draws questions about permits, stop-work order and title

MADISON COUNTY — Soma Investments Inc. requested rezoning of a 5-acre parcel at 2613 Hardman Morris Road in Calvert from AC to AR to allow an existing mobile home — described in the record as an expired medical-hardship unit — to remain on the property as an accessory dwelling unit. The planning commission did not record a final recommendation in the excerpt of the hearing.

Alex Osorio, representing the applicant, said the intent of the rezone is to allow multiple family members to live on the property; “we're looking to rezone it so we could live there with our sister, like our parents and our sisters in the same properties,” Osorio said. During discussion county staff and the county attorney identified outstanding regulatory issues: a stop-work order related to ongoing work, a reported small fire on a porch, and incomplete paperwork including septic and building-permit documentation that the applicant said they were pursuing.

Madison County Attorney Mike Pruitt explained legal background the commission should consider when evaluating owner-occupancy requirements. Pruitt described a contract-for-deed sale (a private seller-financed contract under Georgia law) and warned it can leave buyers without the protections of foreclosure if title has not transferred: “It can be very predatory called contract for a deed where people pay according to a contract. ... The owner just evicts them, and all that money's lost,” Pruitt said. Commissioners and staff discussed whether the county’s owner-occupancy requirement for accessory dwelling units is met when title remains with the seller under a contract-for-deed arrangement; no definitive recommendation or vote was recorded in the transcript excerpt.

Ending: The item remained under discussion in the planning commission and the transcript does not show a final commission recommendation to the Board of Commissioners in the provided excerpt.