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Applicant seeks conditional-use permit and variances for auction barn on Neese Commerce Road in Commerce
Summary
Zach Hightower of Northeast Georgia Outdoors LLC asked Madison County planning officials for a conditional-use permit to operate an auction barn at 315 Neese Commerce Road and requested variances to parking-paving and perimeter landscaping requirements; board members asked staff to check for prior conditions from a 2021 approval.
Zach Hightower, representing Northeast Georgia Outdoors LLC, requested a conditional-use permit and two variances from Madison County planning staff to operate an auction barn on a 3.53-acre parcel at 315 Neese Commerce Road in Commerce. Planning staff told the board the auctions would be held every other Friday from 6 to 10 p.m. and that county ordinance prohibits events from running past 10 p.m.
The proposal would allow the sale of goats, sheep, poultry, bough [sic], cattle and swine on the property, which is in the county’s Madaco West character area. Planning staff said the applicant expects between about 50 and 100 people per auction, and that the property’s driveway entrance and exit are on Cody Fowler Road.
Planning staff told the board the proposal triggers a conditional-use review and a variance request from two zoning requirements: Section 11.10.2 f (automobile parking requirements) and Section 11.10.2 j (zoning buffers and screening requirements). Under current rules the site must have 15 paved parking spaces with wheel stops and a 10-foot-wide perimeter landscaping buffer. “He’s actually planning on having 50 spaces, but wants them to all be gravel,” planning staff said. Staff also said the applicant must pave or concrete the driveway apron even if the parking area remains unpaved.
Why it matters: the parcel is located within a residential/agricultural land-use pattern in the Madaco West character area, and the requested variances would relax paving and buffering standards intended to address traffic, dust and visual screening in rural-residential areas. Several board members asked whether previous approvals had imposed conditions that remain in effect.
Discussion and next steps: a board member asked whether the Board of Commissioners had placed additional limitations on the property when it was rezoned. Planning staff said they did not find any such conditions in an initial search and offered to pull the full file for the record. Staff noted the site previously received a conditional-use approval in 2021 and that, in the last year, a county text amendment created a conditional-use path for ag-related businesses; staff said they would confirm any limitations tied to the 2021 approval.
No formal action on the conditional-use permit or variances was recorded in the transcript excerpt. The board packet included the applicant’s letter of intent and site plans; staff read those materials aloud for the board. Earlier in the meeting the board voted to approve the minutes from the prior meetings (dates referenced as the 3rd and the 17th).
