The Habersham County Planning Commission gave the green light to a controversial housing development west of Clarkesville. Commissioners approved the final plat for A&R Homes on Harvest Church Road and State Route 17 with conditions. However, it took two votes to get that approval.
The meeting was attended by a standing-room-only crowd, with some attendees standing out in the hallway. According to Planning and Development Director Mike Beecham, the audience was evenly split for and against the controversial project.
The development first came before the Planning Commission this past January and has been waiting for final plat approval since then.
Reversal
The Planning Commission initially voted on the proposed final plat for A&R Homes, and that vote resulted in a tie. The Planning Commission is typically made up of seven members, but Bill Gresham resigned from the commission in April, leaving only six members.
The initial vote was 3-3, with D. Higgins, Mike Van Winkle, and David Purcell voting against the proposed development plan. Two of the members that voted against it stated it was due to public safety concerns.
After that vote was taken, the Planning Commission voted to take a 10-minute recess. During the recess, the developer, the county attorney, the developer and his attorney, and another unnamed attorney approached the bench and talked to the commissioners.
After the recess concluded, there was a motion made to rescind the previous vote on the A&R Homes final plat approval. A motion was made to approve the final plat with conditions. Purcell and Van Winkle remained as the dissenting votes.
It was an unusual turnaround. Asked if rescinding previous votes often occurs with the Planning Commission, Beecham said, “No.”
Conditions
Opponents of the planned development raised public safety concerns over anticipated increased traffic. The Georgia Department of Transportation conducted a traffic study and determined a westbound right turn lane will need to be added at the intersection of SR 17 and Harvest Church Road to accommodate estimated daily traffic volumes. The DOT also limited the number of driveways for homes pulling out directly onto SR 17 from the property.
The original plat called for 12 homes to be built along the highway. That number has been reduced to five.
Commissioner Higgins changed his vote after conditions were added to the proposed development. One of those conditions is that A & R Homes can not develop the properties on the gravel road portion of Harvest Church Road until they widen and pave the road to county standards. The road must be approved by the county before development occurs.
Commissioners also stipulated that only six homes will be allowed to be built on Lots 12 through 17, according to Beecham.
