Developer wins buffer variance for Old Alabama Road warehouse site; tree-density relief postponed

The Cherokee County Zoning Board of Appeals approved a variance to Article 10 §10.6 allowing limited encroachment into required permanent buffers for a proposed industrial development at 5889 Old Alabama Road, but postponed a separate request on tree-density replacement until the next meeting.

Catherine Long, planning staff, told the board the SDP Acquisitions LLC site contains 38.16 acres and two proposed warehouse/distribution buildings (about 171,150 sq ft and 200,000 sq ft). She said the applicant plans to disturb and replant within the 30-foot and 50-foot buffers and noted the applicant would remove approximately 340.2 density units of specimen trees and therefore would need 680.4 replacement units; the applicant proposes 67.5 units and remains short roughly 612.9 units under Article 27 requirements.

Park Self, counsel for the applicant, described a grading-and-replanting approach that pairs existing tall trees with new evergreen plantings closer to the disturbed area to create an effective visual screen. "So this is our tree plan to replant," he said, and characterized the total encroachment as small — roughly 7,000–7,811 square feet across three areas — driven by the site's topography and streams.

Board members debated whether the advertised code citation (§27.8) matched the specimen-tree recompense provision and whether the office should bifurcate the requests. The board voted to approve the buffer variance (motion recorded as approved with an abstention noted in the record) and to postpone the Article 27 tree-density/specimen-recompense variance to the next meeting to allow staff and applicants to confirm legal notice and explore off-site tree-bank options.

The action recorded: approval of a variance to Article 10 §10.6 (buffer encroachment) and a unanimous 5–0 vote to postpone Article 27 density/specimen-recompense relief to the subsequent hearing.