After the required two public hearings, Hall County commissioners voted Thursday to delay a vote on a proposed change to the county's short-term rental ordinance.
District One Commissioner Kathy Cooper made the motion to delay the vote after hearing more than a half hour of public comments on the proposed change, with both supporters and opponents filling their entire allotted speaking time. The remaining commissioners approved the move to delay the vote unanimously.
If approved, the change would allow owners of properties in Residential-I and Residential-II zones to apply for a short-term rental license without needing a special use approval from the Hall County Planning Commission. Under the current ordinance, R-I and R-II are the only zonings that require planning commission approval for those rentals.
Commissioners are now scheduled to vote on the change at their March 28 meeting. County officials said another public hearing will not be required because only two hearings are necessary for an ordinance change to be voted on. The first public hearing was on February 28.
"What normally happens is that we start negotiating (at the meeting)," District Two Commissioner Billy Powell said. "You don't remember something, you forget about this, you fail to mention this, so I am very much in favor of that motion. I think it's going to give us a couple of weeks to kind of massage what we've got, take input from (Thursday's hearing) and hopefully come to some happy medium."
Commission Chairman Richard Higgins agreed with Powell.
"It's not an easy decision. We're trying to do the right thing."
The current ordinance was approved in 2018 after similarly divided public hearings. District Four Commissioner Jeff Stowe was not in attendance at Thursday's meeting, but voted along with the other commissioners via phone.
