To catch up on zoning decisions delayed because of Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricane Helene, the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners will hold public meetings three evenings next week. But none will be held Tuesday, when the regular meeting time would have clashed with Election Day.

Agendas that Clerk of the Board Venus Mincey-White issued this week show only zoning matters as specific action items for a “special” meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4 and another “special” meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6. The third meeting is what would have been Tuesday’s regular meeting, but it’s now rescheduled to 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7.

Notice that the start time of next Thursday’s “regular” meeting is a half hour earlier than usual.

“We’re doing that at 5 because the P and Z (planning and zoning) agenda is so long that we thought we’d go ahead and do the business portion early, and then for legal reasons we can’t start P and Z until 5:30,” Mincey-White said when asked at her office.

She and commissioners Chairman Roy Thompson didn’t have an agenda ready yet for that Thursday, Nov. 7, meeting, but Mincey-White said she expects to have one to post by Friday evening or Monday. She was working with the Planning and Development Office staff on their agenda submissions and did not know yet how many zoning items were to be scheduled  for Thursday.

But the agendas for the Monday, Nov. 4, and Wednesday, Nov. 6 commissioners’ meeting contain a total of 12 zoning items. Those that require public hearings, with citizens voicing concerns, are often the most time-consuming topics the commissioners handle.

Because of storms

Commissioners and staff planned this meeting-heavy week to handle a backlog of zoning and development items left by storm cancellations. But they wanted to avoid meeting on Election Night, Thompson said. The commissioners’ meeting room in the North Main Annex shares a parking lot with the county election headquarters.

Tropical Storm Debby prompted cancellation of an Aug. 8 Planning & Zoning Commission meeting and the rescheduling of a Board of Commissioners meeting. Then another commissioners meeting, scheduled for Oct. 1, was cancelled while county offices remained closed for a week in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Unlike county business decisions that could be rescheduled quickly, certain zoning items require a notice to be published within a certain range of days before a public hearing. The county’s ordinance specifies 15 to 45 days notice in the newspaper before a hearing for a conditional use or zoning amendment. For a variance, the requirement is 30-45 days newspaper notice. There are also requirements for signs.

So county officials regrouped the items and issued new notices.

Rezoning requests

Monday’s six items include a setback variance request, a conditional use request and four rezoning applications.

William Clayton Mills has asked that a 5-acre tract on Bell Road be rezoned from Ag-5 agricultural to MHP, mobile home park. Southland Timberlands LLC applied to rezone approximately 350 acres on U.S. Highway 80 at the Bryan County line from Ag-5 to LI, light industrial, for development of warehouses.

FNT Investments LLC applied to rezone approximately 36.5 acres on Burkhalter Road from R-40 (residential, minimum lot 40,000 square feet) to R-3 (minimum lot size 15,000 square feet) for a multi-family housing development with 192 units.

L&S Acquisitions LLC has applied to rezone approximately 199.56 acres on Clito Road from Ag-5 to R-25 (minimum lot 25,000 square feet) for the purpose of developing a single-family residential neighborhood with up to 208 lots.

Wednesday’s six scheduled zoning items include four conditional use  requests and two rezoning requests.

But the two rezoning requests are really for one project. Blue Water Bulloch LLC has applied to rezone one approximately 89.62-acre tract and one approximately 9.51-acre tract, both on Burkhalter Road, from R-80 (minimum 80,000-square-foot lots allowed) to PUD-1, Planned Urban Development-1. The project summary calls for a maximum of 147 townhome units and 101 single-family home lots.