GAINESVILLE -- A Gainesville man's request to rezone his piece of property to store construction equipment was denied by the Hall County Commission at their meeting Thursday evening.
Larry Phillips had asked to rezone the property on Hidden Hills Drive from agricultural residential to planned industrial development to stay within regulations when storing equipment for his construction business at the property, but several nearby residents voiced opposition to the proposal at the public hearing, citing concerns about property in the Browns Bridge Road corridor being designated as industrial.
"I would like to see it remain agricultural and residential," George Dyer, a resident of nearby Cumberland Point Drive, said at the meeting. "I don't deny the man a place to park his equipment, I grew up in the logging business, he's got to have a place to store his equipment, I give him that. But to change it to industrial, I've got a problem with that."
Dyer was one of five people to speak in opposition to the request, but, as Phillips noted after they had spoken, only one opponent was a resident of Hidden Hills Drive.
"I'm just kind of tired of, especially these outsiders that don't even live on the flippin [sic] road, live nowhere near me, continuously criticizing what I'm doing," Phillips said.
County planning director Srikanth Yamala said Phillips had successfully rezoned the property to light industrial in 2008 to operate his business out of an existing building on the land, but had it rezoned back to agricultural residential in 2012 following the economic downturn.
Several of the request's opponents reiterated the concern that the Browns Bridge Road corridor might see more industrial property in the largely residential area, citing a recent controversial rezoning request by nearby Mincey Marble. Commission Vice Chairman Scott Gibbs said he felt the commission has a responsibility to enforce zoning codes.
"If we're going to have zoning, why are we not going to enforce it?" Gibbs asked the other board members. "Mr. Phillips is in the development business, he knew he should have had a permit, he knew he should have had zoning."
Phillips stated at the hearing that he had been storing construction equipment on the property without the proper zoning and was hoping to correct that with the rezoning request.
"The ask for forgiveness, we're just bypassing, so why don't we get rid of our zoning ordinance," Gibbs said. "I was on the other side for the Mincey Marble (rezoning request) than these folks that are speaking here (in opposition to Phillips' request), because they were an established business, that's how I justified that zoning. But this is something that was built, knowingly, without following our building and zoning process."
Commissioner Billy Powell, whose district the property is in, made a motion to approve the request with nine conditions. While that motion was seconded by Kathy Cooper, it was denied 3-2, with Gibbs along with Commission Chairman Richard Higgins and Jeff Stowe voting against. Stowe said he was on the fence about the request down to the minutes before the vote was taken.
"It came down to making sure that people that know what they should be doing as far as building permits and zoning actually follow through and do it," Stowe said after the meeting.
