Oconee Planning Commission recommends approval of five rezoning requests to the Board of Commissioners

The Oconee County Planning Commission on July 21 recommended approval of five rezoning requests and forwarded them to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners for final action.

The commission voted on applications ranging from a proposed conversion of an existing convenience-store site to a restaurant and fueling station to multiple requests to change agricultural (AG) and agricultural-residential (AR) zoning for small parcels and minor subdivisions. Planning staff presented each case and recommended conditional approval; commissioners moved and approved each recommendation and closed public comment before voting.

Planning staffer Herring introduced the first case, P240165, identifying the applicant and owner as Saks Bishop LLC and describing the request as a rezone from AG to B-2 that includes a recorded plat and concept plan showing revisions to an existing convenience-store fuel station. Herring summarized staff’s conditions, which included relocating signs currently in the public right-of-way prior to occupancy, prohibiting on-site auto repair, removing vehicles stored on-site from an adjacent auto repair business prior to site-development-plan issuance, visually screening service areas and dumpsters behind a six-foot masonry wall with matching facade materials, and installing landscaping to meet Article 8 (landscaping and buffers) requirements.

Lee Anderson, identified himself as project manager for Welcome Foods and said the operator plans to expand the septic system, add parking and construct a retention pond while eventually connecting to city water. Reginald Creighton, a civil engineer with Southeast Engineering Resources, and Amin…