Meaningless Zoning Ordianances

A tie vote on June 5th doomed a proposed moratorium on residential zoning. However, the "it is not needed" approach failed to consider how a moratorium would benefit the county.

One commissioner who opposed the resolution has always said: The land use plan is just a guide; priorities change; people deserve zoning changes for highest and best use of their land.

The Georgia DCA requires counties to have a land use plan. Failure to have one allows the state to revoke authority to issue building permits. Have the citizens been defrauded by the BoC spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of man-hours to study and produce the CLUP if it exists only as a negotiation tool?

Although priorities change, personal agendas have not changed here for over thirty years. Failure to recognize a need for an altered path is not rational.

Landowners “deserve” only the land uses defined by our ordinances. Exceptions deny equal protection to every other landowner. When the BoC makes exceptions, the definitions of zoning districts and all associated ordinances are changed. Non-conforming zoning changes only grease the slippery slope.

“Highest and best use” is a real estate marketing term. It does not exist in any Title of the Official Code of Georgia. The only "best use" that legally exists is already defined in the ordinances.

Negotiation efforts by Joe Developer and complicity by Bob Commissioner is “normal procedure” for those who believe their personal opinions are more valid than the letter of law. That fact causes concern about growth management and whether the Board members can be trusted stewards.

The county has lost many legal battles over this blatantly arbitrary and capricious rewriting of ordinances. Each corruption of county code leads to another, and then another.

A moratorium on residential zoning changes would have forced the BoC to honor our ordinances. It would allow the 2030 Comprehensive Land Use Plan to be quickly adopted into county ordinances.

As Commissioner Mathis said, "Right now we are in the same position we've always been in. For years we've had tunnel vision in this county and for now that isn't going to change."