Elbert County Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Cosby “Butch” Smith has resigned, effective Nov. 9, after the Elbert County Board of Commissioners approved a rezoning request on Cleveland Drive Nov. 8 that the zoning board unanimously recommended the commissioners deny.
“There are many concerns by me as to the effectiveness of the zoning board and zoning in Elbert County and this came to light tonight on the commissioners’ zoning vote for Parcel 061 05A belonging to Mr. Brent Berryman changing the zoning from residential to general business,” Smith wrote in the letter addressed to Code Enforcement Officer Allen Hulme and shared with County Manager Bob Thomas.
The commissioners, voting 3-1 on a motion from commissioner Chris Alexander, approved a request by Berryman to rezone 1.5 acres from single family residential to general business for a deer processing facility during the Nov. 8 regular meeting. Commissioner Freddie Jones voted to oppose the request.
Prior to the commissioners’ vote, the planning and zoning board voted 3-0 to recommend the commission deny the request.
Smith and planning board member Chris Nigel excused themselves from the vote.
Nigel said she had previously done business with Berryman, while Smith excused himself from the conversation entirely as he is a resident of Cleveland Drive.
Planning board member Charles Cecchini was absent from the meeting.
“The zoning board is an advisory board to the county commissioners. The problem that they’ve dug [is that] they denied, and paid no attention to, the advisory board,” Smith said. “They paid no attention to the comprehensive zoning plan. They just decided to do what they wanted to do.”
According to the 2019 update to the Elbert County Comprehensive Plan, the area of Cleveland Drive is zoned agricultural, rural residential and single family residential.
According to Smith and Hulme, the closest zoning to general business is a mixed-use-zoned property almost three miles away on Ruckersville Road.
“The area, over the last 10-15 years has transitioned into residential,” Smith said. “This would be at the end of Cleveland Drive but it would put a crack in the door to open up the whole area to general business and did not comply with the comprehensive plan nor the zoning for the area for how the area has transitioned and is being used.”
In his resignation letter, Smith also wrote that Berryman had been operating a business on his property prior to last week’s zoning decision as well as posted signs at the intersection of Cleveland Drive and Ruckersville Road advertising the business.
Smith wrote that both instances are against the county’s code of ordinances.
Hulme said he knew Berryman had been operating the business, and at the same time he found out, Berryman submitted a rezoning request application.
“I did not tell him he could operate. I did not tell him he could not operate,” Hulme said. “Typically, if there is a pending application, we do not make anybody stop anything until the application goes through.”
Smith also said that the zoning board made the decision to recommend denial after hearing information from various citizens, including residents of Cleveland Drive and the surrounding areas, as well as Berryman.
Smith said the zoning board, the code enforcement officers and the board of commissioners received a petition signed by 29 residents or land owners from the Cleveland Drive area who asked the board to deny the request.
Smith, who said he has served as the chairman of the board of the past six months but has served on the board for the past six to seven years, said while he knows planning and zoning is just an advisory board to the commissioners, the commission’s recent overruling was the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“I’ve seen some issues skirted that I didn’t agree with, but this was one of the few I’ve seen that was a slam dunk. It doesn’t fit; it shouldn’t be approved,” Smith said. “The county commissioners, in my mind, sent a resounding notice to Elbert County that zoning only matters when the commissioners want it to matter.”
CORRECTION: The original version of this story listed that the commissioners voted 3-1 to approve the request with Commissioner Chris Alexander voting in opposition. The vote was 3-1 with Commissioner Freddie Jones voting in opposition. The story has been corrected to reflect this and a corrected version will also be printed in the Nov. 23 edition of The Elberton Star. We regret the error.