A moratorium on rezoning for higher-density residential subdivisions in southeastern Bulloch County expired April 7, but the five weeks since have brought no flood of new subdivision plans to the county development office.
In fact, only two rezoning requests are moving forward to the advisory Planning and Zoning Commission for the type of projects the moratorium had blocked in the area that it covered.
But the moratorium, originally enacted by the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners in August 2022 for 180 days and extended in January for 56 more days, allowed time for development of new subdivision and zoning rules and regulations. The commissioners enacted those, as well as a new Stormwater Control Ordinance, April 4, three days before the moratorium expired.
“I think all the developers are still trying to get it all figured out and used to the new ordinance and the requirements that they have to do, and just maybe they’re taking a little bit more time to do it,” county Planning and Development Director James Pope said Friday.
Members of the public packed the room for a Planning and Zoning Board meeting Thursday evening, May 11. But this time, the more controversial items included a request for rezoning 22 acres of agricultural land to HI, or heavy industrial, for a manufacturer that would supply plastic parts to Hyundai Motor Group, and the board’s recommendation of the still-pending general amendment to the Future Development Map in the Bulloch County Comprehensive Plan. That amendment is meant to mesh with the new zoning rules.
The only actual subdivision item on Thursday night’s agenda was KB Rentals LLC’s request to rezone almost 89 acres between Lotts Creek Road and Pulaski Road from Ag-5 agricultural to R-80 residential for 41 lots of single-family housing. But this property is not in the Southeast Bulloch area where the moratorium previously applied, and rezonings to R-80, the low-density classification that requires home lots measuring at least 80,000 square feet, or 1.8 acres, were exempted from the moratorium.
It only barred rezoning for subdivisions of R-40 or greater density. R-40 requires a minimum lot size of about nine-tenths of an acre, while the minimum lot size for R-25 zoning is a little over half an acre, and for R-15, a little over a third of an acre.
Unblocked requests
Two rezoning requests that would have been blocked by the moratorium are on the Planning and Zoning Commission’s already published agenda for its next meeting, at 6 p.m. June 8. It will be held in the Bulloch County Agriculture Center, 151 Langston Chapel Road.
In one of those requests, R&H Development Co. seeks to have 60.2 acres near the intersection of Old River Road South and Shuman Road rezoned from Ag-5 to R-40.
In fact, a request to rezone this property to R-25 for the creation of a subdivision with about 91 lots was filed before the moratorium period, Pope said. But that request drew some neighborhood opposition and was withdrawn by the developer.
The new request, to the larger lot-size R-25 classification, is for about 62 lots.
“It still doesn’t fit into what the Comprehensive Plan would call for out in that area,” Pope said.
That is also true of the other zoning change request slated for the June 8 Planning and Zoning meeting. In a new, post-moratorium application, Valnoc LLC is seeking to have 75.7 acres at the intersection of Anderson Cemetery Road and Georgia Highway 67 rezoned from Ag-5 to R-25.
The near access to Highway 67 brings the project closer in line with what county staff members want to see for new subdivision development, but again R-25, or any residential zoning denser than R-80, is not standard in rural character areas, Pope said.
The character areas and future land use map do not have legal force in themselves but are meant to guide the staff and planning board in their recommendations.
“That’s all the rezones and subdivisions that we’ve had applied for,” Pope said. “Of course, there are a few that we’ve met with and kind of gone over the new ordinance with them. … You know we always get developers making calls, but nothing to the point of making applications.”
In addition to learning about the new zoning regulations and subdivision requirements, builders may be taking their time to adjust to higher interest rates, he said. So, the surge in residential projects county officials were seeing before the moratorium has yet to resume.
“We still expect a good number of them to come in in the next six months to a year,” Pope said.
Development map
The appointed Planning and Zoning Commission, by a 5-1 vote with member Ryne Brannen opposed, recommended approval of the amended Future Development Map proposed as an update to the Smart Bulloch 2040 Comprehensive Plan. So the amended map now goes to the elected Board of Commissioners for a final vote.
The amendment proposes a new “suburban corridor” along Highway 67 and Old Highway 46 and a small portion of U.S. Highway 80, and adds a “suburban neighborhood” south of I-16 to Seed Tick Road and north to Mud Road.
It would also expand the existing “interstate gateway” character area at the Georgia Highway 67 interchange on Interstate 16.