County initiates rezoning for Garland Mountain Sporting Clays to allow standalone restaurant and parking expansion

Cherokee County staff told the Board of Commissioners at the Jan. 21 work session that the county is initiating a rezoning of roughly 5.67 acres at 2618 Garland Mountain Trail so Garland Mountain Sporting Clays can replace a former lodge and add a standalone full-service restaurant and pro shop.

Planning staff said the property has a long regulatory history: a 2016 license and a zoning certification letter by former zoning administrator Vicki Taylor Lee identifying outdoor recreation as a permissible use on land zoned AG. A settlement agreement dated Aug. 13, 2019, between the Salicoa Community Association, Cherokee County and Garland Mountain LLC required county approval for any future expansion of the facility and attached the approved construction plans.

Why this matters: staff said the planned restaurant would no longer be accessory to the shooting-range use and would be a primary reason patrons visit the site, triggering a different set of zoning requirements. The proposed plan replaces a previously approved 6,149-square-foot lodge with an approximately 8,500-square-foot restaurant, expands parking from about 33 spaces to about 74 spaces and would require review by Environmental Health of the existing septic system.

Planning staff noted the proposal was presented to the county’s preliminary plan-review team in August 2024. Because a standalone, publicly accessible restaurant is not an accessory use allowed in the AG zoning where the property sits, staff said the county is initiating rezoning of the specified 5.67 acres to general commercial and a concurrent variance request to address a 35-foot buffer issue created by rezoning an island of property surrounded by the owner’s own AG land.

Staff also reviewed the August 2019 settlement agreement, which stipulates that any deviation from the approved plans requires county approval. Mike Bray, who represents the property owner, told staff he may want to speak during the formal hearing process. The item was listed among the public hearings on the work-session agenda; no final decision was made during the session.

Board members asked clarifying questions about the number of proposed buildings and whether the pro shop and restaurant would be separate structures; staff replied the current plan shows one primary restaurant building plus a separate pro-shop structure not visible on the presented site plan.

Next steps: the county indicated the rezoning is a board-initiated action and will proceed through the formal public hearing and review process required by local ordinances and the settlement agreement.