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Commissioners refer contentious Silcope cricket-field rezoning to planning board after packed hearing
Summary
Developers requested conditional-business zoning for two youth cricket practice fields on a 20.7-acre Silcope parcel; residents raised traffic, water and rural-character concerns during a full public hearing and the board referred the proposal to the planning board for further review.
A legislative rezoning request for a 20.736-acre parcel on Silk Hope Gum Springs Road to create two youth cricket practice fields drew a packed public hearing and strong opposition, and the Chatham County Board of Commissioners referred the matter to the planning board for further review.
Planning staff introduced the request as a conditional-district regional-business rezoning intended to allow open-air grounds for youth cricket practices. Jan Nichols, representing the applicant, told commissioners the plan had been revised after community input to remove a third field, add a single entrance, increase setbacks, preserve riparian buffers and add screening. "This proposal brings those youth recreation opportunities closer to home," Nichols said, arguing the fields would operate only during daylight hours with no night lighting, no bleachers, no amplified sound and no tournaments.
More than a dozen neighbors and landowners testified during the two-hour hearing. Nearby residents said the project conflicts with the county's comprehensive plan and the UDO, will increase traffic on narrow two-lane roads, and risks setting a precedent for commercial conversions of agricultural land. "Cricket balls and cows don't mix," Ruth Lett told the board, reflecting broad local concern that the use is incompatible with surrounding farms and conservation easements.
Speakers also raised water and drainage worries and cited a planning-board minority report that urged caution, saying the county did not build the transmission line for rural subdivision development. Commissioners asked whether conditions—such as limiting hours to weekend daylight or restricting uses to practice-only—could be written into an approval; staff and the applicant said conditions could be crafted if the planning board and board later chose to do so.
The board closed the hearing and formally referred the rezoning to the Chatham County Planning Board for a recommendation and additional review. That body will take public comments and return a recommendation to the board before any final rezoning vote.
