Private sports complex headed to West Jackson
BOC approves rezoning for project
BY ANGELA GARY
A sports complex will locate in West Jackson following action of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners Monday night.
The BOC agreed in a 4-1 vote to a request from Larry Beck to change the land map designation for 21 acres at 8154 Hwy. 124 West from residential growth to community activity center for the project. Beck now plans to seek rezoning of the project to pave the way for the development.
Commissioners Bruce Yates, Dwain Smith, Jody Thompson and Tom Crow voted in favor of the request, while BOC chairman Pat Bell voted against it.
Beck said the sports complex will be privately owned and the developer will rent the fields to leagues. Plans call for baseball, softball and soccer fields, as well as a skateboard park and tennis courts, to be located on the property. The site has frontage on I-85.
“It would provide a much-needed service in the community,” said Beck, a resident of Braselton.
Three people spoke in opposition to the request, including Robert Hoggood, a resident of Deer Ridge Subdivision.
“It will be a hindrance to the people living in that subdivision — the noise, the lights,” Hoggood said.
Martha Warren, another resident of the subdivision, said she is concerned about increased traffic, people in the complex with drugs and alcohol and “doing things they shouldn’t do.”
“We bought the property in 1988 for the privacy and the woods,” she said.
Another man who lives in the subdivision added, “We should keep it a residential area. I don’t want the softball ‘country club of the south’ in my back yard.”
BOC SPLIT ON FENCE REQUEST
In another zoning request, the BOC voted 3-2 to deny a request from Tom Beck to change the conditions in his zoning so that a fence would not be required along the adjoining property line. Beck is developing a subdivision on Skelton Road. When the zoning change was approved for the subdivision project, a condition was added on the fence.
Crow and Smith voted to deny the request while Yates and Thompson supported his request. Bell broke the tie by voting to deny the request and keep the condition for the fences in place.
Beck asked for the action because of a change in the adjoining property owned by Gene Gilbert. A majority of Gilbert’s property was changed from A-2 to R-1. Gilbert operates an exotic farm on the site.
“You have the power to destroy my farm tonight,” Gilbert said. He added that it was a mistake to change the zoning of the majority of his property. Gilbert said he did that two years ago because he thought he had a buyer for the property.
OTHER ZONING
In other zoning business, the BOC:
• unanimously approved a request from Thomas Carter to rezone 8.65 acres at 15 Creekside Drive from A-2 to R-1 for a two-lot split.
• unanimously denied a request from Sondra Davis for a map amendment for 3.42 acres at 270 Hwy. 82 North to be changed from residential growth to industrial workplace to locate warehouses. Davis was not present, but two citizens spoke in opposition to the request. Robert Thompson said, “All the property around here is strictly residential…This is a case of spot zoning.”
• approved an amendment to the sign ordinance to do the following: Reduce the maximum size of signs from 300 square feet to 200 square feet, to reduce the height limit from 35 feet to 20 feet and to allow only one sign per road frontage.
• learned that a request from ProLogis to rezone 198 acres on Toy Wright Road from A-2 to L-I for an industrial park had been withdrawn.
