Toccoa City Commission October 14 Meeting Recap

During the Oct. 14 Toccoa City Commission meeting, commissioners voted on several key agenda items, and heard from citizens who attended the meeting to speak to commissioners regarding the closing of the Boys and Girls club. 

Votes taken by the commission included a unanimous approval to allow a proposed subdivision at 752 Big A Road to move forward. The project calls for the construction of 21 new duplexes, with the land remaining in single ownership, forming a build-to-rent subdivision. 

City Manager Fredda Wheeler gave a brief overview of the project at the beginning of the public hearing.

The Toccoa Planning Commission, following a meeting earlier in the month, recommended approval. Comments were made by an audience member at Monday’s meeting regarding the fact that only two members of the five member Planning Commission had recorded votes during the Planning Commission’s vote to recommend approval. City Attorney John Dickerson clarified that three members of the board were in attendance at the meeting, constituting a quorum, and that, as with many advisory boards, the Chair, who was in attendance at the vote, only votes on matters to break a tied vote by other commission members. Since the two other present members voted to recommend approval, a vote by the Chair was not required, and the vote to recommend approval was a proper vote.

It was clarified that the entrance to the development will be located off of Big A Road/Hwy 17, not off of Collins Road.

Billy Chism spoke against the development, speaking as a representative of the NE Georgia Housing Authority.

Brad Trotter, an engineer with Foothills Land Design, who is part of the development team, addressed concerns regarding runoff at the request of Commissioners.

Commissioner Terry Carter clarified that the City had consulted with an independent engineer regarding the Foothills Land Design engineering report, and the independent engineer had confirmed the conclusion from Foothills that the retention pond would reduce the runoff problem below it’s current level.

Citizen Marie Cochran also spoke against the project.

Trotter responded to Cochran’s concerns regarding rainfall amounts during Hurricane Helene and its impact in Western North Carolina, saying that the impact in that area has been identified as a 1 in 30,000 year storm.

The motion to approve the subdivision report was approved unanimously by vote of the Toccoa City Commission, with all members present.

Next on the agenda was a rezoning request from Frazier Investments LLC for Property Located at 81 Center Plaza Drive – known locally as the former Save A Lot shopping center. The request was to rezone the property from B-1, Neighborhood Shopping District – the least intensive commercial zone in Toccoa’s zoning ordinance, to B-IV, Wholesale Business District – the most intensive commercial zone in the ordinance. 

During the public hearing, citizen Christian Hamilton stated that he agreed that a rezoning appeared necessary for best utilization of the property, but commented that rezoning from BI to BII would be sufficient, and spoke in opposition to a rezoning to BIV, which he said allowed too intensive of a use for the property, which directly adjoins residential neighborhoods, and which would create improper “spot zoning” as the only BIV zoning in the area.

Wayne Frazier, with Frazier Investments, responded, saying that the rezoning was needed to make the property available to the widest selection of potential tenants. He said that, although the preferred tenants would be covered under a rezoning to BII, he was requesting rezoning to BIV in case he couldn’t find tenants that fit under any other approved use than those covered by BIV, which incudes warehouses.

The Toccoa City Commission voted unanimously, with all members present, to deny the rezoning request for BIV designation, but urged the investor to reapply and request a rezoning to BII.

In other business at the commission meeting, commissioners heard the first reading of an amendment to the city’s Alcohol Beverage Ordinance to add, at the recommendation of the Toccoa Alcohol Control Board, an article regulating Brew Pubs, Breweries, Distilleries, Micro-Breweries and Micro-Distilleries. A second reading of the ordinance will be held at the next meeting of the commission, with a vote on approval or denial expected to be held immediately following. Commissioners also unanimously approved awarding the demolition of a residence at 234 W. Whitman Street to the lowest bidder. Following the demolition, a lean will be placed on the property to recoup the expense to the city. 

Following completion of the agenda items, during the public comment portion of the meeting, resident Marie Cochran spoke with commissioners regarding the closing of the Boys and Girls Club, the need for a replacement program in the community, and the possibility of using city facilities to host a citizen-organized town hall meeting, which the commission said would be possible, adding that the city would not be able to sponsor or organize the meeting, but would offer free use of city facilities such as the Schaffer Center for the meeting.