The Hall County Board of Commissioners Thursday evening approved a poultry processing facility, a portion of a Lake Lanier housing development and denied an agri-entertainment venue.
The poultry processing facility is being proposed by applicant Brian Jones on a 4.19-acre plot of land along Centennial Drive. The area is currently zoned as Light Industrial, but food processing facilities require conditional use permits granted by the county, according to the report.
The area in question is currently undeveloped. Plans indicate a 19,241-square-foot metal-sided building with a loading dock and five bays on the backside of the structure.
Hall County Planning Staff recommended approval of the facility prior to the Commission’s decision, citing the business's consistency with the “established development pattern along Centennial Drive.”
Lake Lanier housing development is approved
Commissioners Thursday also approved a 121-lot subdivision on a 55.54-acre plot of land located at 3271 and 3270 Buffington Farm Road. This development is part of a bigger project, which aims to have a total of 337 lots on Lake Lanier.
The applicant, Arabella Capital, LLC, was requesting to rezone the property from Agricultural Residential and Vacation-Cottage to Planned Residential Development for the 121-lot portion, according to Hall County staff reports.
This item was previously tabled at the Aug. 10 Hall County Board of Commissioners meeting, as Commissioner Gregg Poole was waiting to hear back regarding road right-of-ways. The county is reportedly planning to improve a nearby intersection along White Sulphur Road, which may be impacted by this development.
“We're still looking at possible roadwork in the future down White Sulphur,” Poole said. “I would like to think that we would be more collaborative with them if we find funding—funding is driving everything.”
Agri-entertainment venue gets denied
The final item put to a decision by the Board of Commissioners was a wedding agri-entertainment venue located at 3555 North Bogan Road. The 7.03-acre plot is zoned as Agricultural Residential and the applicant, John A. Moore, Sr., was aiming to get a conditional use permit in order to conduct entertainment venue services on his property.
Moore also requested two variances, which included substantial property setback adjustments for the primary structure and the parking lot. Due to Moore’s variance request, which would have seen the property setbacks lessened by over 90%, the commissioners elected to deny the request.
“The setbacks went from like 300 [feet], all the way down to 15 [feet],” Commissioner Kathy Cooper said. “And you can't put a business up against people's houses like that. So if it were a bigger piece of property, and he could have maybe had it [the venue] centralized in the middle, it might have worked a little bit better for him, but it's just too small.”
Cooper put forward the motion to deny the entertainment venue, citing the fact that “chopping a setback down that far” would set a challenging precedent for the county in future entertainment venue requests.
