GAINESVILLE -- A man's request to rezone a residential property off of Skelton Road to highway business was denied by the Hall County Commission Thursday evening.
Jose Robles was seeking to use the land at the corner of Skelton Road and Broadway Place in Gainesville to park up to three vehicles that would have been used to operate his septic tank business. One man, though, spoke against the application saying he represented eight nearby land owners.
"We have suffered from bad planning in the past," Eugene Moon, who lives on Skelton Road, said. "We deal with this throughout Hall County. Our fear as residents in that area is if we zone this to highway business it will lead into other more undesirable businesses being placed in our community that we do not want."
District 4 Commissioner Jeff Stowe made the motion to deny the request which was unanimously approved by the rest of the board. Stowe said he had problems with the rezoning despite the nearby highway business that had already been zoned into the mostly residential area.
"It's all residential, even 90 percent of the (highway business zoning) is residential," Stowe said. "Adding additional trucks of this size coming in, I don't even know how they would make the turn to get in the driveway it's so tight."
Moon also noted Skelton Road's size and character in his comments, saying he also felt the road was too small to support traffic from box trucks and other vehicles that Robles was planning to use.
"We have traffic issues on this road already. It is a narrow road, it doesn't meet, really, the county width standards. Georgia Power, which is located on the south end of this street, does not even bring their trucks or trailers up and down Skelton Road due to the fact of safety," Moon said.
Applications for large grants approved
The commission also approved Hall County officials to apply for a pair of grants that, if awarded, would go towards two major projects. The largest of the grants being applied for is over $20 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation that would go towards the extension of Sardis Road. The second is a more than $150,000 award from the Appalachian Regional Commission for design and work on a county visitor's center and a marketing plan for Healan's Mill.
If awarded, the county would have to match the grants with over four million dollars of its own money.
