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Planning panel backs rezoning for Hickory Flat medical office, 9–0
Summary
The Cherokee County planning body recommended approval of a rezoning request to allow a single 12,000 sq ft medical office on 6.02 acres at 5263 Hickory Flat Highway, citing revised plans that removed a requested buffer variance and multiple proffered conditions including lighting, landscaping and a two-story height limit.
The Cherokee County Planning Commission on a 9–0 voice vote recommended approval of a rezoning request that would allow Hickory Flat Medical Partners to build a medical office at 5263 Hickory Flat Highway.
Staff told the commission the applicant seeks to rezone about 6.02 acres from R80 (residential) to Office & Institutional to permit a single 12,000-square-foot clinic. The staff presentation noted environmental constraints on the site — streams, stream buffers and a floodplain — and said the applicant withdrew a previously requested variance to a 30-foot exterior buffer after revising the plan.
Ethan Underwood, representing Hickory Flat Medical Partners, said the revised site plan pushes the building back from Hickory Flat Highway, adds a ten-foot landscaped frontage strip with evergreen plantings, and scales the building to no greater than two stories. Underwood said the applicant proffered conditions limiting building height, requiring underground utilities, controlling dumpster location, meeting county parking standards and restricting outdoor lighting to a warmer hue (no more than 3,000K) with downward-facing fixtures.
"We believe this is a conforming use," Underwood told the commission, adding the site’s stream buffers and floodplain constrain residential development and that the clinic is a lower-intensity commercial use than many alternatives.
Commissioners asked staff and the applicant about light orientation and enforcement of county light-trespass rules. Underwood said the applicant would agree to downward-facing fixtures and that the site plan includes measures to minimize light spillage. Staff reminded the commission that any GDOT permits for work on State Route 140 would be required before county land-disturbance permits.
With no members of the public signed up to speak for or against the case, a commissioner moved to recommend approval of the rezoning with the applicant’s proffered conditions; the motion passed 9–0.
The recommendation will be forwarded to the Board of Commissioners for final action at a future meeting.
