A Gainesville couple is looking to turn their property into East Hall County into a special events venue for small weddings, corporate meetings and family reunions.
Todd and Becky Jordan, along with family friend Pat Chastain, went before the Hall County Planning Commission during its Tuesday meeting to present their application for the event site off Old Cornelia Highway and M G Drive.
“The property’s really pretty,” Chastain told the commission. “It’s wooded with some lovely creeks on it. It would be a great place to get married and to have a family reunion or something. Lots of photo spots.”
The primary venue would be a 3,120 square-foot barn located on the southeast end of the property. The Jordan’s actual house would only be used as a dressing room for the wedding party, if necessary.
The concern of the planning commissioners was noise.
“This is not intended as a concert venue by any stretch of the imagination,” Chastain said. “It’ll simply be music associated with weddings and if you had a family reunion, you might have a little bit (of music) inside the building. There’s not going to be like an Aerosmith concert or anything like that.”
Becky Jordan also told the commission that she and her husband Todd, have made every effort to reach out to the neighbors and inform them of their plans for the property.
“I wanted to invite people,” Becky Jordan said. “I wanted (the neighbors) to come to my barn and see it, so I had refreshments and punch and opened up the place for them to actually come and meet us in person and eat and sit down and talk and ask any questions they wanted to ask. They all thought it was beautiful. They were all in full support.”
Still, there were some words of caution for the Jordans.
“You won’t have any opposition until you crank up the music about 12 o’clock on Sunday night,” said Don Smallwood, Chairman of the Planning Commission.
The commission unanimously approved the Jordan’s application with one additional condition - no concerts. The application will now go to the Hall County Commission on Sept. 22 for further action.
After that, pending approval, the Jordans will continue work on converting their property. A lot of expense is still required before the place is ready for show time, according to the couple. Topographical surveys need to be taken and a septic tank needs to be designed as the Jordans plan to meet with their engineers to discuss future developments such as the addition of restrooms.
Once complete, events on the 17-acre plot of land will be limited to 175 participants. Parking is currently slated to be on-site in two lots, one gravel and one grass, and the proposed operating hours are 9 a.m.-10 p.m. on weekdays and 12 a.m. on weekends.
