Board approves sign modification for Mount Olive Crossing with indemnity requirement

The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners voted to approve a modification of Condition 5 attached to a prior rezoning and granted a concurrent variance so an existing freestanding sign at Mount Olive Crossing may remain in its current form.

Planning staff explained the request was twofold: to modify the monument-style sign requirement in Condition 5 and to allow a freestanding sign that does not meet the ordinance’s wrap-around masonry requirement. Planning also reported that the sign had been constructed over a 24-inch county drainage pipe easement without a permit. Planning recommended that, if approved, the applicant record an indemnity and hold-harmless agreement prior to any permit approval. "Applicant erected a sign over a county drainage pipe easement without a permit," staff said during the presentation.

Nasser Khalil, a partner with Mount Olive Crossing LLC, told the board the contractor built the sign two years ago under the belief a permit had been obtained and argued the sign’s corner location was necessitated by a waterway: "We had understood that they had got the permit, and then we found out they did not, and they built it. I think the sign ... cannot be located except where it is located because of the waterway," Khalil said.

Commissioners moved to approve the modification and the variance with the explicit condition that a satisfactorily executed indemnity/hold-harmless agreement be recorded by the applicant prior to permit approval. The motion passed 3–0. The board noted alternatives would include relocating the sign with proper permitting if the agreement is not executed.

The next procedural step is recording the indemnity agreement and proceeding with permit review and issuance if that condition is met.