Planning panel approves Planned Industrial Development at 2811 Athens Highway with outdoor storage limited to a 160-by-160 gravel area

The Hall County Planning Commission voted 4-0 on Jan. 21, 2025, to rezone a 21.21± acre tract at 2811 Athens Highway to Planned Industrial Development (PID) and to permit a single 160-foot by 160-foot outdoor storage area for roll-off containers tied to a proposed welding and roll-off dumpster manufacturing business. The parcel, Tax Parcel 15023 000037, had been advertised for Heavy Industrial zoning when a proposed transfer station was later removed from the application.

Planning staff advised the commission that, without the transfer station, zoning options included Light Industrial (I-1) or PID; commissioners approved PID with nine conditions. Conditions require Georgia Department of Transportation-approved access, building facades clad in brick, stucco, or split-face block (metal siding may be veneered), a 25-foot undisturbed buffer along Athens Highway supplemented with evergreens at least 6 feet tall, a 50-foot transitional buffer along property lines (with stream-buffer exceptions), and a prohibition on outdoor grinding or crushing. The motion to rezone and the separate motion to allow the gravel outdoor storage area both passed 4-0 (Sosebee absent).

Commissioners questioned visibility from Athens Highway and screening along the rear of the property where residential zoning borders the site; applicant representative James Irvin confirmed finished products would be stored behind the building and roll-off containers would sit on the ground (not on trailers). The applicant removed a transfer station from the plan prior to the hearing. Final building elevations and the landscape plan must be approved by the Planning and Zoning Director or designee before site plan approval.