Board approves variance to place manufactured home on undersized lot at 9365 Georgia Highway 204

The Bryan County Board of Adjustments approved a variance to allow a manufactured home on a roughly 1-acre parcel at 9365 Georgia Highway 204, reducing required side setbacks and permitting placement despite the lot being smaller than the A-5 zoning district’s typical five-acre minimum.

Planning staff said the property is zoned A-5 (agricultural) and is surrounded by similar zoning and Fort Stewart to the south. Staff recommended approval, noting the parcel is nonconforming as to minimum acreage and therefore meets the variance criteria for relief.

Chris Martinez, the applicant, said the parcel is a long-held family property and that a house and trailer had existed on the land in the past. "My mother grew up there. It was my grandma's property prior to that," Martinez said. Lauren Jennings, a representative of the manufactured-home dealership selling the unit, said the home is new and that the company would not bring in an older or deteriorated unit.

Staff described the requested relief as a reduction of side setbacks (transcript language indicates a request to reduce side setbacks from 50 feet to 13 feet) to allow placement of a new, 32-by-80 manufactured home on the site. The property is about one-fifth the size normally required in A-5 zoning, according to staff.

The board closed the public hearing, received the applicant’s remarks and a submitted statement from the dealer, then voted by voice to approve the variance. No public opposition was recorded at the hearing. The decision enables the applicant to pursue county permitting for the manufactured home, subject to any building or utility approvals required by county departments.