Bulloch Commissioners hold listening session on Zoning Moratorium

Bulloch County Commissioners held a listening session on Monday, October 10th on the Zoning Moratorium. The commissioners have created a steering committee that has been charged with helping guide the process of updating the county’s comprehensive land use plan including zoning updates. This six month process includes three stakeholder meetings.

On Monday, September 19, the county held its first Comprehensive Plan Public Stakeholder Hearing. Around 30 citizens attended the meeting to share their concerns and ideas for future growth.

Entire Board of Commissioners in attendance

Many of the attendees were upset that no commissioners were present for the stakeholder meeting and requested another meeting with the commissioners present. All six commissioners and the commission chair attended the meeting. Out of the 40 citizens in attendance a majority of them had attended the first meeting.

Many of the residents that requested an opportunity to speak lived in the Shuman Road and Old River Road area of the county.

Overview of objectives

The meeting opened with County Manager Tom Couch giving an overview of the challenges presented with the potential growth of they Hyundai and Aspen Aerogels plants located in our area. We covered this extensively in a previous story you can review here.

"A simple baseline issue we need to figure out is a way to preserve prime ag land, a semi rural lifestyle and a geographic area has to be chosen to absorb the growth that is inevitably going to come. We can't build a moat around Bulloch County and say you can't come and live here. There is going to be a market and demand for workforce housing and new businesses and commerce," said Tom Couch. "I think we have tried to present an approach to direct growth into a more compact development area and try to balance all of these interest."

Five things that must be accomplished by February by the Commission:

Amend the land use map and development ordinance in a responsible way
Update the long range transportation plan sometime next year
Rise with Hyundai until they are up and going in 2025
Plan for the services and infrastructure that Southeast Bulloch and the rest of the county is going to need
Work consensually with all the different people and groups but everyone has to understand that once the region and Hyundai committed there is no turning back

Proposed timeline for the Committee

14 Citizens Shared Concerns

14 citizens spoke at the meeting which lasted nearly two hours. Their concerns varied by all centered around the concern for the disturbance of rural life and agriculture. They like their communities the way they are and enjoy their way of life.

Here are some highlights of the concerns expressed at the meeting:

Concerned about the large number of septic tanks
Dumping water into the Ogeechee
Suggested an amendment of section 4-414 which impacts the criteria for evaluating requests for the zoning maps
School crowding
Groundwater concerns
River pollution
Keep Ag5
Concerned about water quality and quantity
Quality of Schools and impact influx of new students will have
Concerned by building bigger schools we will lose our community based schools with the growth.
Remind commissioners that we the citizens put you in those seats and don't forget it
Question about Conservation land that is in place that allow all types of hunting. Combining early morning dove shoots and deer hunting with dogs is going to be upsetting to newcomers not use to rural life.
Concerns about conflicts with members serving on the commission. Prefer that citizens living in the area of the moratorium not be able to serve on the committee.
Crime concerns
Moved here for rural, don't want McDonalds or Starbucks
When are traffic studies done before or after subdivisions approved
Will there be an Eagle survey or endangered species survey done
Water pressure on wells a concern
Wells going dry due to large amount of water required for industry
Don't want to become another Pooler
Moved to rural area because they wanted a rural lifestyle don't want that interrupted

Watch the full meeting below:

Concerns about way information is shared

Several of the citizens were concerned that there was not a way to receive daily news. They relied on the local paper for their news, but with it being reduced to three days per week, they are seeking ways to keep up with local news and information.

Bulloch Daily emails by Grice Connect

Grice Connect has covered this issue extensively and include the dates of the meeting on the community events calendar. Our daily email, which is delivered free to anyone's inbox free at 6 am includes a summary of local news stories, a community calendar of events and obituaries. Many citizens have discovered this as an alternative. Sign up for the free email by clicking here.

Website to update zoning moratorium progress

James Pope, Planning and Zoning director for Bulloch County has created a web page on the county’s website to allow citizens a way to easily follow the Zoning Moratorium Committee progress and other public information. The web page will include interim reports of the committee.

Click here to view the page or go directly to it below:

Commissioners Respond

Several of the commissioners addressed issues brought up in the meeting. Commissioner Timmy Rushing explained that many of the concerns raised were out of the range of authority from the commissioners like septic tank placement, size and number of septic tanks needed, well locations and water quality requirement are determined by agencies outside of the range of authority by the commissioners.