Oconee County commissioners on Tuesday approved two zoning changes designed to allow the developer of a shopping center at U.S. 78 and Mars Hill Road in the northwest of the county to move forward with the project.
The zoning changes are to accommodate a grocery store, putting the developer in the position to be first among three shopping centers along U.S. that included a grocery in their plans to actually build the store.
The Georgia House of Representatives on Monday pulled two bills designed to reconfigure the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections and Registration from its local legislative Calendar and sent them to its Intragovernmental Coordination Committee for further consideration.
Rep. Houston Gaines, who represents one of Oconee County’s four precincts in the 120th House District and is the chief sponsor of the two bills, did not object when Beth Camp, chair of the Intragovernmental Coordination Committee, asked House Speaker Jon Burns to pull the two bills from the Local Calendar.
Oconee County’s two state House representatives, who also represent parts of Athens-Clarke County, have introduced legislation in the General Assembly to change how the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections and Registration is constituted.
As is the case in Oconee County, the ACC Board of Elections and Registration at present consists of five voters serving four-year terms, with one member put forward by the county’s Democratic Party, one member put forward by the county’s Republican Party, and three chosen by the County Commission from voters in the county who apply.
Georgia House Bill 92, on the desk of Gov. Brian Kemp, would give the Oconee County Board of Education until the end of April to decide to reverse its decision to opt out of the floating homestead exemption approved by voters last November.
If the Board decides to stay the course and not participate in the inflation-adjusted property tax exemption for homeowners, it will have to renew that decision again in 2027, after holding three public hearings, if the governor signs the bill.
Meredith Dean, Director of Community Works, an initiative to build relationships and trust across political differences, asked Oconee County Democrats last week to “think differently” about people living in rural America.
Speaking to the Democrats via Zoom from her base in rural Virginia, Dean said “both major parties have actually failed rural communities,” and this is part of the reason Democrats “are in the situation” they are in.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has sent letters to property owners between SR 15 and U.S. 441 south of Watkinsville telling them that survey work will begin soon for the design of a truck bypass of Watkinsville for SR 15.
Property owners are told they must allow access to the surveyors and are asked to complete a sketch showing where their septic tanks are located.
Representatives of Jones Petroleum Company and Hand Properties were before the Oconee County Planning Commission on Monday with the most specific plans to date for a grocery store in the U.S. 78 corridor in the northwest part of the county.
The request was to rezone a very narrow strip of land north of and opposite Clotfelter Road on U.S. 78 that will allow for a signalized entrance to a planned shopping center to the west of the JP convenience store and fuel station and Burger King at Mars Hill Road.
