After Bulloch County’s planning and development staff requested repeal of a 2014 rezoning that could allow a subdivision for up to 500 homes to be built on 135 acres – a rezoning that county rules suggest should have expired nine years ago – county commissioners by a 3-2 vote last week instead granted the developer a two-year extension.

The site, on Pretoria Rushing Road at Burkhalter Road, was proposed for a subdivision named Parkside in an August 2013 concept master plan filed by R&H Development Company. On May 9, 2014, the county commissioners then in office approved a change from R-40 residential to PUD-1, or Planned Unit Development, which can allow for a much higher density in a neighborhood with other required features.

The minimum home lot size in an R-40 zone is 40,000 square feet, or a little over nine-tenths (0.92) of an acre. But the Parkside concept plan, as sketched for PUD zoning, allows for lots averaging about one-fifth (0.2) acre each. With the plan’s provision for about 28 acres of “open space” such as buffers, passive parks and storm water ponds and for 12 acres of preserved wetland, the proposal left just over 95 “net buildable” acres, and the county’s report lists the maximum number of lots as 500.

One unusual aspect of the Jan. 6, 2026 attempted zoning action was that the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners itself was listed as the applicant. Actually, it was Planning and Development Director James Pope who requested the reverse rezoning as “agent” for the commissioners. In his report, Pope explained that the request was made “due to the expiration of PUD approval subject to Section 1210 of the Bulloch County Zoning Ordinance.”

That section of the ordinance states: “If substantial construction, as determined by the planning director, has not begun within two years after approval of the PUD, the approval of the PUD will expire.”

The ordinance gives the property owner the right to request an extension “for not more than three months after approval of the final development plan.”

“If the PUD expires under this provision, the planning director shall petition the board of commissioners for the PUD district to be removed from the official zoning map and to reinstate the zoning district which was in effect prior to the approval of the PUD,” the ordinance continues. “The board of commissioners shall hold a public hearing on the planning director's petition to amend the map… “

So, the process Pope was following appears to be what the county law calls for, although according to comments during Tuesday’s meeting, nobody knew of this ever having been done before. Since the PUD was approved May 9, 2014, the PUD authorization apparently would have expired in May 2016, if there had been any official follow-up. Pope noted he wasn’t on the job that long ago.

High-growth area

But for recent context, he presented a staff-produced map labeled “Burkhalter Road Corridor Area Development.” Around the Pretoria Rushing Road, or Parkside, PUD, highlighted in yellow, the map showed 13 “area rezonings and active developments, both in the city and county,” as Pope described them. These were shown as gray shapes labeled with the numbers of proposed housing units.

With 154 units, 57 units, 206 units, 240 units, 399 and 198 and 85 units, 133 and 70 and 192 and 46 and 134 and 301 units, these added up to 2,215 potential homes. All were in the area around Burkhalter Road, from Georgia Highway 67 up to and just beyond U.S. Highway 80 along the southeastern to eastern margin of Statesboro.

The Pretoria Rushing Road PUD could add 500 more home units. But as Pope noted, a final plan was never submitted. So the concept plan isn’t necessarily what the developer would build now.

“Really since 2020 we have a good bit more development along Burkhalter Road,” Pope said, “and so with that in consideration staff holds to the recommendation that we rezone the property to an R-40, and if the developer wants to come back with a revised plan or revised traffic study that may anticipate some of the traffic improvements that may be required along Burkhalter, this is an avenue to make that happen.”

Attorney’s rare role

Another unusual aspect of the hearing was that Statesboro-based private attorney Steve Rushing, who has often represented developers in requests before the county and city boards, was put in the position of speaking against a request, as he noted.

But that request was Pope’s move to reverse the rezoning, and Rushing came to represent R&H Land Holdings LLC, which owns the site, accompanied by the firm’s principal and founder, Robert K. Bell Jr.

“I’m here to object, to oppose that, and to ask that you allow the PUD to remain at least another two years. …,” Rushing said. “It is true that our construction has not commenced. However, the principal reason for that is that after submitting our PUD, it was determined to be best for this project if we had public infrastructure, water and sewer, rather than a large septic system.”

So, he said, the developer has been “trying to ride out getting city of Statesboro water and sewer to this property, and now this many years later it is only a stone’s throw away.”

Only one tax parcel separates the tract from the city limits on S&S Railroad Bed Road, where there is an existing PUD within the city, Rushing said. In another direction along Burkhalter, there are two parcels between the R&H Land Holdings tract and the city limits, where there is another city-zoned PUD, he told the commissioners. Furthermore, he and his client had received a “will serve” letter from the city staff, indicating that the city government intends to supply water and sewer to the subdivision and has the capacity to do so.

“We fully expect it to be to our site within the next two years, and then we can commence,” Rushing said.

In regard to traffic concerns, he stated that the planned development will have only one access point on heavily traffic Burkhalter Road but five on other roads. He noted that in the county’s current comprehensive plan, this is a “suburban neighborhood” character area, whose description mentions planned unit developments, but not R-40 zoning.

County Attorney Jeff Akins recommended that if the commissioners left the PUD zoning in place they put a time limit in as a condition, since after denying the planning director’s request there would be no clear limit.

Commissioner Nick Newkirk wanted to grant Pope’s petition to change the zoning back. In response to a question from Newkirk, Pope said that although the original request stated 500 units, a density condition approved by commissioners back in 2014 allowed up to 7.2 units per acre, or about 684 total.

Commissioners differ

“The ordinance that we follow as a county says that after two years you shall revert it back, and I think it’s going to be a bad precedent if we sit there and pick and choose what we do with that,” Newkirk said.

“I have concerns about the traffic on Burkhalter,” said Commissioner Ray Davis. “It needs a rest, or a cooling down period, on the number of people. The difference between a PUD and R-40 is probably 2.5 to three times the population... not to mention the pressure on the school system.”

But Commissioner Timmy Rushing said, “These are going on city water and sewer, and that’s going to take care of our septic tank problems, because it’s going to be developed either way.”

A motion by Newkirk, seconded by Davis, to approve the zoning reversal failed 3-2 with Commissioners Ray Mosley, Timmy Rushing and Anthony Simmons opposed. Commissioner Toby Conner was absent.

Simmons then made a motion, seconded by Rushing, to deny to reversal, “keep the PUD-1” and impose a two-year limit. This passed 3-2 with Davis and Newkirk opposed.