Cherokee County hearing continued on proposed rezoning of 69-acre East Cherokee Drive site

The Cherokee County Planning Commission and County Commission on Wednesday continued a public hearing on a request to rezone a 69-acre property at 13450 East Cherokee Drive to light industrial, sending the case back to staff and the applicant for additional study.

Planning staff said the applicant, Ball Ground Business Park LLC, seeks to rezone a split-zoned site (ONI and R80) to allow industrial uses and showed a concept for a 20,000-square-foot multipurpose building with 76 parking spaces and a 24-foot-wide driveway aligned across from Craft Trail. The property, which is currently vacant, has frontage on East Cherokee Drive and Coker's Chapel Road and lies near Dwight Terry County Park, the Pine Bluff Landfill and the CCWSA wastewater treatment plant.

Planning staff noted physical and policy constraints on development. A stream and associated floodplain bisect the parcel, triggering a typical 75-foot impervious setback that includes a 50-foot undisturbed buffer, which limits disturbance near the channel. Staff also pointed to Section 7.1-14 of the county ordinance, which directs that primary industrial access should be from a major arterial or state highway; the site would access a county collector (East Cherokee Drive). Transportation staff told the commission the driveway would be designed per Cherokee County standard detail 2-10 and likely require a deceleration lane and possibly a left-turn lane. Cherokee County Water and Sewer Authority staff indicated the parcel is on septic but has water service available. Planning staff said it received emailed opposition from nearby property owners.

Planning staff recommended a potential condition for approval barring industrial land-use access to Coker's Chapel Road, noting that residents had previously raised concerns about industrial access onto that local street. “No industrial land use access to Coker’s Chapel Road” was offered as the staff-recommended condition in the staff report presented to the commission.

Representatives for the applicant said they are revising the site plan and will prepare a traffic study. Adam Rosen, representing the applicant, said the applicant intends to submit revised plans and a traffic study and “we ask to be heard in April,” and offered to hold a public-input meeting for nearby property owners once the new materials are available.

A member of the public, Ken Keating, spoke in opposition and focused on truck traffic and local road capacity. “My big issue was we can't be dumping traffic, commercial traffic on Coker's Chapel,” Keating said, adding that a segment of East Cherokee Drive south of Macedonia restricts commercial vehicles over three axles and asking the commission to ensure truck traffic would not be routed onto local streets not designed for it.

After discussion, a motion to table the public hearing until the commission's April meeting (staff recommended 04/01/2025 for a new public hearing) passed. Commissioners Belotte and Doss were identified in the record as the commissioners associated with the motion to continue; the commission voted to continue the case and to require an additional advertised public hearing once revised materials and the traffic study are available.

The commission did not take any zoning action tonight; the hearing will resume when the applicant submits revised site plans and the traffic analysis required by county staff. Planning staff told the commission they will re-advertise the case and notify parties who register an interest.

The continued matter was the only rezoning case on the evening's agenda.