Island Planning Commission defers Demery Road rezoning to Jan. 8 after noticing error

At its meeting, the Glynn County Islands Planning Commission voted unanimously to defer a zoning-change request for an approximately 1.2-acre property on Demery Road to a special-called meeting on Jan. 8, 2025, after planning staff said the application had not been legally noticed.

Planning and Zoning Director Stephanie Lee told commissioners, "We did find out earlier this week that there was a noticing error, and so we have not met the legal noticing requirements. So we are planning to re-notice this application fully," and said staff has confirmed a special-called IPC meeting for Jan. 8, 2025, which would allow the application to remain on the Board of Commissioners' January agenda.

The item was introduced to the commission as ZM 242322280 for a request to change zoning of an approximately 1.2-acre parcel (Parcel 0413636) from Medium Residential to Local Commercial to allow commercial uses. The transcript also contains a later reference to the item as "ZM-24-23," an inconsistency staff and the commission noted in discussion; staff agreed to pull the property's application history and related past filings to include with the re-noticed packet.

A commissioner asked whether the adjacent parcel to the west had been combined with the subject parcel; Lee said the parcels remain separate and that a townhouse preliminary plat is proceeding on the neighboring lot. The applicant's agent, identified in the file as Jim Bishop (Jim Bishop Law Firm), told the commission he was agreeable to the Jan. 8 rescheduling.

A commissioner moved to defer the item to the Jan. 8 special-called meeting; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

What happens next: staff will re-notice the application, compile prior application history for the parcel and publish the Jan. 8 agenda; the commission will reconsider the request at that special-called meeting before any recommendation is forwarded to the Glynn County Board of Commissioners.