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Board approves rezone and special-use to allow convenience store and truck fueling at Highway 78 & 53
Summary
The board approved rezone P250043 and special-use P250044 to allow a gasoline/convenience store with two truck-fueling bays at the intersection of Highway 78 and Highway 53, subject to site and traffic conditions, after applicant and neighbor testimony about traffic impacts.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners voted Nov. 4 to approve a rezone (P250043) and a special-use permit (P250044) to allow a gasoline station with an attached convenience store and truck-fueling bays at the intersection of Highway 78 and Highway 53.
County planning staff described the request and recommended conditional approval with a set of site standards (building materials and architectural elevations, landscaping and screening, a six-foot masonry screen wall for service areas, no truck parking signs, cross-access and ingress/egress easements, and a revised traffic impact analysis meeting Unified Development Code requirements). The planning commission had recommended approval with staff conditions.
Eric Eberhard, an attorney with Eberhard & Hale representing the property owners and the prospective operator, told the board Kwik Trip Corporation has an option to purchase a 2.849-acre tract within a larger ~8.63-acre parent tract and asked that the board approve the requested rezone to B-2 and the special use for truck fueling. Eberhard said the applicant will resubmit a revised traffic impact analysis and "work with this county to try to improve that intersection." He added, "We actually think that our presence is gonna benefit the county with our willingness to do those changes and work with the county on that." He also said his own calculation of anticipated daily traffic increase from the site is about 2% and that the submitted traffic study contains the detailed numbers.
Neighbor Brenda Jennings opposed the project, saying her home sits immediately behind the proposed site and describing existing congestion near an existing service station and multiple subdivisions under construction. "I can hardly get out of my driveway," Jennings said, adding that her mailbox has been knocked down twice and that more children and school buses use Highway 53. She urged the board to consider traffic impacts.
After questions, the board moved and approved the rezone with the listed conditions and then approved the special-use permit with its conditions. Both votes were recorded verbally as 'Aye' with the chairman noting 'Motion carries.'
The approvals require the applicant to meet the county’s landscaping, architectural, setback and screening standards and to submit and obtain approval of an updated traffic impact analysis and any necessary site-development plans prior to final plan approval, per planning staff conditions.
Next procedural steps include the applicant addressing outstanding staff comments on the traffic study and submitting site development plans for review by Public Works and Planning and Code Enforcement.
