Brooklet City Council took its first official steps Thursday evening toward annexing 278 acres and approving a zoning change for about 26 acres already in the city limits, both to make way for a subdivision that could accommodate roughly 100 homes, if city sewer connections allow.

Both requests, on behalf of the Weyerhaeuser Company, which owns all 304 acres, were voted forward 5-0 by the council members from first readings during a specially called 6:30 p.m. July 11 meeting. Now the council could take final action during its regular meeting next Thursday, July 18, to approve the annexation ordinance and the rezoning from agricultural to R-3 “multi-family” residential.

Brooklet’s appointed Planning and Zoning Board had held a public hearing on the requests a month earlier, June 11, and recommended approval of both actions to the elected council with “conditions.” Those conditions were recommendations that the council require a traffic analysis and review water and sewer agreements with the developer.

During the council’s brief public hearing on the topic Thursday, engineer Cody Rogers, Statesboro branch manager for EMC Engineering Services, spoke on behalf of Weyerhaeuser and the proposed developer of the subdivision, Tripman Investments LLC. He said the developer and engineers are working on a plan for the subdivision to be built out in phases over 10 years.

“Right now we’re thinking at least four to five phases of this subdivision,” Rogers said. “We right now don’t have any wetlands delineation; we don’t have any soils delineation. We don’t know about septic suitability. There are a lot of questions that have to be answered prior to really knowing anything about the number of lots and yield that this property would have.”

From Ken’s IGA, the tract is out Parker Avenue North, beyond the last few houses on the right. It begins as a wooded area to the east of the street, up to where Parker Avenue intersects Cromley Road before becoming Brooklet-Leefield Road. It would, according to Mayor Nicky Gwinnett and other city officials, be the largest residential subdivision added to Brooklet in living memory.

Portions of the site visible from Parker Avenue had water standing on them this week, and Rogers said a delineation of wetlands will be necessary to determine how many homes can be placed on the developed track.

By “septic suitability” he meant soil suitability for septic tank permits in case Brooklet’s sewer system, only now being planned and financed, doesn’t reach there in time. More homes can be built on the same area with city sewer connections than with septic tanks.

A mixture of lot sizes is likely, with houses to be built on them varying in floor space from about 1,300 square feet to the 2,500-2,800-square-foot range, Rogers said. Finishes would include variously vinyl, brick or plank siding “so it wouldn’t be a postage-stamp community,” he said.

He didn’t offer an estimate of the number of homes during the council’s brief hearing on the topic. But when the Statesboro Herald interviewed him afterward and asked what would be the expected minimum number of homes, Rogers said 100.

“As far as a minimum number, you could certainly fit a hundred lots out there. …,” he said. “There is enough land area to fit a hundred. Now I guess a worst-case scenario would be, if something happens with the sewer system – it doesn’t go through, it doesn’t get constructed, it gets delayed – and then we find out that there’s no suitable soil out there for septic systems, or very little. That could drive that hundred down.”

At least 3 years

With all the planning, engineering, wetland mapping and permitting that needs to be done, the first homes probably won’t be built there until about three years from now, Rogers told the mayor and council.

The bond issuance to fund construction of the first phase of Brooklet’s sewer system may also be on the agenda for approval at next week’s meeting, Gwinnett said. Under the terms of the already awarded partial state funding for the project, construction must begin this year, noted Brooklet’s city engineer, Wesley Parker.

Dave Bircher, a member of Brooklet’s Planning and Zoning Board, spoke up to ask whether the council had looked at how to pay for increased services for added residential areas not only in terms of water and sewer, but things such as traffic and lighting and the need for an expanded  police force. Gwinnett said he thought this consideration would be “a little bit premature for now” with this subdivision, but would part of the continuing process.

Brooklet’s city government will be looking at “aid to construction fees, tap fees,” for some development-related revenues, but also simply at the “increasing tax base, obviously,” Gwinnett said. In fact, the council also approved the first reading of some new water and wastewater rates and charges, including an increased “water capitalization fee” to raise money for repairs and upgrades of the existing water system.

“Besides water, we need to make sure public safety is covered on this,” Bircher said after the meeting. “We’ve got a lot of narrow roads, and with the growth make sure money is being spent to better that. The sewer is very important as well. So I’m personally just trying to make sure that our City Council is looking at all of this. Our Police Department is very small, and if we’re going to double in size, we need to think about that.”

Brooklet’s odd R-3

The request for R-3 zoning also highlighted what the mayor and some council members say is a need to replace outmoded or ambiguous zoning regulations. R-3 is identified in Brooklet’s rules as the “multi-family residential district,” but Rogers said the developer has no current plans for actual multi-family structures and mainly wanted the designation for the lower minimum lot size it allows for single-family homes.

Despite the “multi-family” label, Brooklet’s R-3 definition states that the category’s purpose is “to provide orderly development of residential areas for one-family, two-family and multi-family dwellings” with a minimum lot size of 10,000 square feet and the building area not to exceed 30% of  lot area. A 10,000-square-foot lot equals a little less than one-fourth of an acre.

Rogers said he thought the minimum allowed lot width would be 70 feet but that the developer is planning for lots 80 feet and wider.

Separately during the meeting, Councilwoman Rebecca Kelly reported on an effort to obtain the Coastal Regional Commission’s assistance for a new Brooklet Master Plan that will include, among other things, land use planning.

“I definitely think we need to move this forward, get them hired and start this process,” said Councilman Keith Roughton. “Part of some of our issues here is our zoning is so outdated. … We’re kind of making it up as we go along.”

“I believe we need to get a master plan in place and then get the rezoning done and get it done correctly because it will help Planning and Zoning, it will help us and it will help the businesses,” Kelly said.

Gwinnett commented that Brooklet could ask the CRC to help it “basically start over” as the scope of work for the planning.