Planning commission recommends denial of CRI Tree Service rezoning on Hickory Flat Highway

The Cherokee County Planning Commission voted to recommend denial of a rezoning request by Jacob Miller, representing CRI Tree Services, to change roughly 4.5 acres at 9320/9290 Hickory Flat Highway from R40 (single-family residential) to General Commercial.

Planning staff told the commission the applicant proposed to operate a tree-service business at the site, use the parcel for work-truck parking and employee parking, and to subdivide the owner’s residence at 9290 Hickory Flat Highway from the commercial parcel. The site plan showed 20 spaces for work trucks and 15 employee spaces, a privacy fence and landscaping along the frontage, and a proposed deceleration lane meeting Georgia Department of Transportation standards. The applicant also requested a concurrent variance to reduce the zoning buffer required by Table 10.1 (buffer standards) from 35 feet to 0 feet adjacent to the owner’s residence.

Why it matters: The site sits on the state-owned Hickory Flat Highway near a signalized intersection and abuts residential properties. Commissioners said approving a commercial use adjacent to a residence with a carved-out home parcel could set a precedent for similar conversions along the corridor and generate nuisance storage problems that are hard to police.

Staff notes and applicant response: Planning staff reported the Cherokee County Water and Sewer Authority indicated water is available via a 12-inch line and that the property is currently served by septic. Staff also recorded a statement from the applicant that logs, wood chips and a sawmill would not be stored or operated at the site and that woody debris would be taken to an off-site dump yard. Katie Greenway, representing owner Cedric Cornell, told the commission, “we do plan on maintaining that 35 foot boundary and buffer,” and that the applicant would limit material storage and use the site primarily for vehicle drop-off and pick-up around 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Jacob Miller said equipment storage on-site would be limited to “a small storage shed. It holds old chainsaw, chainsaw parts, chainsaw bars, bar oil, mixes and things for chainsaws…that would be the storage of small hand equipment that moves from truck to truck.”

Commissioner concerns and outcome: Commissioners questioned whether the proposal effectively amounted to a home business that had not met home-business criteria and whether eliminating a buffer adjacent to an owner-occupied lot would encourage further piecemeal commercialization. Several commissioners described experiences elsewhere in the county where similar operations began with limited impacts but later accumulated logs or chips and parked equipment for extended periods. The commission moved and seconded a recommendation to deny the rezoning; the motion to recommend denial carried. Because the commission recommended denial of the rezoning, the concurrent variance was not considered further.

Next steps: The Planning Commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Cherokee County Commission; staff said rezoning cases typically appear on the County Commission agenda about four weeks after the Planning Commission public hearing.