Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Land Use Rezones topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Pickens County commissioners approve multiple rezonings, appoint airport authority member
Summary
The Pickens County Board of Commissioners approved a series of land-use decisions July 15, including downzoning RZ-190714, conditional-use approval for a training center and both approvals and denials across multiple rezoning requests; the board also accepted an airport authority resignation and appointed Mark Christiansen.
The Pickens County Board of Commissioners on July 15 approved a string of land-use actions, accepting planning staff and planning commission recommendations in several cases while denying others. The meeting included a downzoning of one parcel, approval of a conditional use for a training center, multiple rural-residential rezonings and an airport authority appointment.
Planning staff introduced a downzoning application identified as RZ-190714 (applicant Michael Leonard) and recommended approval to reclassify the property from neighborhood commercial to Small-A (SA) to allow a single-family dwelling. After a public hearing and comments from the applicant, the board moved to approve the downzoning and voted in favor.
The board also approved conditional-use request 190683 from Global Gear Inc. to operate a missionary training center on a roughly 14.67-acre parcel at 11178 Henderson Mountain Road, with conditions requiring no more than two structures for the proposed use and compliance with buffer and erosion-control requirements. RZ-190685 (Holly's Family Trust) was approved with conditions that include erosion-control measures and planting a southern buffer of shade trees with a minimum 2-inch caliper at planting.
Not all requests passed. The board declined RZ-190686 (Jasper Property Ventures LLC), a request to reclassify roughly 100 acres from agricultural to rural residential for subdivision, after a motion to decline carried. The board also followed the planning commission’s recommendation and denied RZ-190706, a 19.84-acre rezone petition previously recommended for denial by the planning commission.
Separately, the board accepted the resignation of airport authority member Anthony Chris Perez for health reasons and approved a resolution appointing Mark Christiansen to fill the at-large vacancy through July 21, 2028.
The meeting moved to public comment after the votes, where a resident voiced concern about development along Highway 5 and near the airport corridor, urging protection of rural character. The board later voted to enter executive session to discuss potential land purchase and pending or potential litigation.
The board’s actions were taken by motion and voice vote during the July 15 session; specific roll-call tallies were not recorded in the public transcript.
