Planning & Zoning - Regular Meeting

Okay. Planning and zoning meeting commission board and board of adjustments for August 19th, 2025 uh and the Richmond Hill campus 66 Math and Freeman. Has everybody gotten a chance to read the minutes? Yes, sir. Okay. Can I get an approval of the minutes from July 15th meeting? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. All in favor? I. Okay. Okay. Moving forward to board of adjustments. We have nothing on the docket. So, at this time, can I get a motion to open the planning and zoning commission public hearings, please? Motion. Second. All in favor? We're in session.

2.5 acres of land located at 282 from the existing RR2.5 residential zing district to RR1 residential zing district and the property in question is located on Ash Road. It consists of approximately 2 and 12 acres. You can see from the existing zoning maps the surrounding area is predominantly RR2.5. That's the zoning reflected in the lighter shade of green with the larger area outside of that in the dark green zone 85 with the comprehensive character area map identifying this area being low density residential so for tracks that are at least one in size or larger the comprehensive plan does recommend zoning districts appropriate for this area that identify all of the RR districts as well as the R15 and A5 These images are going to show you the existing position. So these are views from ash branch looking at the property that is res and then within your package and on the screen we do have the concept being presented along with the res. So currently stated the property is 2 and 12 acres in size 2.5 which that zoning district requires a minimum lot size of 2 and What the applicant desires to do is to subdivide this property so that there is one and a half French road with an acre in the rear that can be accessed via accessment. Um the purpose is to be able to locate an additional back there. So staff has reviewed this request in conjunction with the surrounding zoning as well as

comprehensive plan. We've also reviewed the subdivision regul approval request. Anybody have questions?

Okay, before we proceed, I've kind of sped through the speed of light here in my jersey. Unfortunately, I took over as fast as I can speak. I want to hearken back to my opening remarks and this is really poignant, especially to the point of having our next persons and speakers and stuff up. Uh good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the Bryan County Board of Adjustments and Planning and Zoning Commission. This is a reading specifically for rules of order. Before we begin, I just want to briefly uh review the rules for public hearings. One, the staff, as we already just saw, will present a summary and recommendations first. The applicant or representative will speak next, followed by public comments from those who signed up. Um if you do wish to speak and haven't signed in, please complete a speaker slip during that particular recourse. When called this is pointing to the next person's of course please come to the podium uh state your name and address and of course who you represent. If speaking on behalf of the individual or organization uh if you're self-represented just name and address is perfectly fine. Uh depending on the number of speakers individuals may be limited to up three minutes but if you're part of a group please consider designating a singular spokesperson to avoid repetition. Please also direct your remarks only to the commission and focus on the items under consideration. Uh personal attacks, offduty com off off topic comments or addressing or questioning other members of the audience are not permitted and repeated violations after a warning may result in loss of speaking time. After the hearing, the commission will vote on each item. The board of adjustment decisions are final. That's in the purview of the planning and zoning. Um planning and zoning commission decisions are recommendations which we will forward to the pro to the to the board of commissions for final action. So this particular one would be considered a planning and zoning action which means we do not have final approval and based on our decision of course it's going to as well be forwarded uh to the uh planning and zoning board of commissioners to be held at their next meeting for uh you are welcome to leave the meeting following the items you are here for. However, please exit quietly and refrain from

conversation until you are outside the meeting room to avoid disruption of the rest of the meeting. Thank you for your cooperation and now proceed to our regularly scheduled agenda. Thank you for that folks. Do we have the applicant to speak in reference to this particular case? And just as stated before, please state your name and your address.

Joseph Parker, 2872. Thank you, sir. It's my mother and father-in-law's property and what we're trying to do is put me and my wife and our kids and in our home at the back half of the property. So, we're there to be able to help care for them and you know, anything they need, but also us have our own home on the property, like I said, be there with them. So, that's basically what we're trying to do.

Does anybody have any questions for the applicant? Do we have any speaker slips? Thank you very much. I appreciate you. Does anybody in the audience wish to speak for against this particular matter that has not filled out a speaker slip? Any discussion further on this matter? Folks, can I get a motion to close it, please? All in favor? Can I get a motion for or against? I want to borrow a microphone. Uh, I'll make a motion, please, to approve this reszoning project 20250431. I'll second. All in favor? Any understand?

So, this is going to be moving on to the board of commissions for next time. Good luck.

Okay. Next on the agenda, the amendment to the capital improvement element of the Bryan County comprehensive plan.

Before you amend to our capital improvement element, a little history on this has a transportation impe to your comprehensive plan. Simply what that is is it identifies the public facilities that exist, how you want to improve them, what level of service you want, and what's your time frame in doing that. This is mandated by the state. We did a capital improvement element at the time we did the south transportation impact fee. It was amended. It has been amended twice and now we want to do a north transportation impact fee. In order to do that we had to form committee which we did they need to provide a recommendation on stud that's by state law and then we need to amend our capital improvement element to incorporate the roads and system and public facilities that are applicable in the north area. And so that's what's before you tonight. I'm going to pretty much my remarks and sections I'm highlighting specifically to North Brian. We are not changing anything for South Bryant. The list of roads is the same level of service. The um existing future level of service and time frames for those projects those are actually updated each year through what's called update is also mandated by the state. So this is specifically about North North. So the capital improvement element we are required to have certain things in it. One is the inventory of existing level

of service. And so that's figure six on page 15 of the capital that was in your packet. Then we also have to identify service. That's three. And we identify a portion of North You want to relate the improvements to reasonable geographic area listed program to the east of I6 and so that's why the entire county about half of it the next element that we need to have is the future level of service which is figure service that's what we want to maintain for those element is a projection of facility that's actually the transportation studies I mean that's all the data that goes into transportation studies and the tactment satisfy the state law and also review that information. So why does the state have this? Well, they want to ensure new development does not pay for failure to maintain services. I tell people all the time if you let things degrade to a level service of F that's your measuring how you're measuring it you kind of come back and ask new development element

there's nothing worse than just to collect money and there's no projects identified somewhere else. It's very specific projects only infrastructure impact fee. So why do we have a service area? doesn't make sense for just like it wasn't askd and the rate for the impact fee. The impact fee is part of the study is part of the C that was used. So what's the difference between the committee? So state law requires committee state law or however requires any tonight and make recommendations on the actual question tonight that does a CIendencies

based on what you charts and tables are

those impact fees are indefinite or until this is changed or will there'll be there'll be future updates. Question. Okay. Thanks.

Once we approve an impact program in effect until the boards it the cost and the projects are done update those annually because we're required to do an annual update and then typically about every major update to our CI. So that's how we update the information. So at that time when we do a major update we have five projects on the list of what I'm anticipating is obviously the two complet

the process when you add a project you actually have to do your update your case study and You have to process.

Last question. How are those projects identified? Like how do I'm a nurse, sorry, I don't know how else to say. How do you I would say triage prioritize them.

There is another part to this called a capital improvement plan. It's called a CP that is at the staff level and the county administrator and the engineering director look at that annually with the budget and they decide which projects are the higher priority. So of the four at budget season they would say okay this is the one that goes in in the CI would like to follow that if we change that upate. Okay. Thank you.

Are there going to be any um enhancement of the uh North Brian transportation system? Yes, all the roads are on the north side. The four roads are far and those four roads were chosen because those are priority priority. in that area and the pressure on the transportation network is the new connection that will provide or provide that transportation connection to the new interchange that GI

this will go to the board of commissioners for their final approval as well since we're yes the process Thank you for asking that The process is at September 19th meeting. What they do at that time, again, this is by state law. They make a decision to authorize the CI to DCA. Okay.

So, it's not the point they already to and approve it and say it is in comprehens I have to hear that one requires two. So there'll be a [Music] 30 to 60 days approvals. And one thing I would like to say for people that are looking at the CI looking which is online development transportation effect page. There's projections of revenue that we will collect for the consultant uses the data whatever the data is data source whatever somebody looks at this high. So the number 10 I think was $47 million in anticipated. Please do not get stuck on that number. I I do not see us collecting that much money. The projects are $58 million for the four of them. It would be great if we collected 47 million over the next 10 years. But we would have to develop at basically the rate

and account. whe

we I guess we don't really close the session. I guess I'm not sure to open the public hearing. I think we did we open it. Not for the um amendment. I don't believe Audrey was on. No, it's good. I just didn't know based upon the amendment clarification if we had to. We're not considering it wasn't a um a resoning project or anything like that. So I guess it is a public hearing. So I think I would suggest go ahead and hear. Okay. Step right up. my presentation. Yeah, just just say etc., etc. That's fine.

Okay, let's mo let's get let's uh let's rewind time for our time machine and open uh can I get a motion please to open public hearing for the amendment to the CIE? Motion for to open public hearing. Second. All in favor? It been in reverse session. Um any questions for Audrey with regards to the CIE? Okay, perfect. Do I have a motion to close the public hearing for the Oh, I'm sorry. My apologies significantly. Is there anybody, let me ask you. Is there any speaker slips with regards to this particular element? Okay. Is there any public comment anybody wish to speak for or against this particular public comment? That being said, lastly, any discussion before we close? May I get a motion to close? Motion to close.

Second. All in favor? Officially closed. Can I get a motion to open to uh open the ordinance to update Brian County sign regulations? We have to vote. Oh, wait. Oh, good lord. Recommendation for approval of the C or I'll recommend approval as presented by I'll second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? None abstain. Okay. My goodness. Okay. I'm gonna I will I will now I will now. No, wait. We just We're good. Nothing else. We're good. Okay. No boundaries. Good. Okay. Can I get a motion, please, to open the ordinance to update the Brian County sign regulation? Motion to open.

Second. All in favor? Proceed. So, you may recall a little over a year ago, we started talking about some amendments to our signed ordinance

and we decided to do it in rounds. We started last year with addressing the commercial development that was occurring on the north county at Highway 28 I16 and we brought forth some amendments to um help address some of those signage issues that we were seeing with the commercial development for this round of ordinance updates. We're looking at amendments that are needed in order to address some of the large scale industrial development that is occurring. And so these are going to be the very large warehouses that typically range from 500,000 square feet up. And then also industrial parks where we have multiple large industrial buildings that are accessed by a single access point with shared internal roadways. And so these were brought to our attention by some of the developers that we were working with and staff did see the struggle with our existing sign ordinance and that it really didn't anticipate or address this type of large scale development and so the sign regulations that we had in place were really written for um smaller scale development. So in working with the some of the developers talking through some of those issues and needs and then also in conjunction with some workshops that we've done with the board of commissioners we've put together these draft regulations um that we think will help kind of ease some of the constraints that we're seeing with the projects that we're looking at. So, with these specific amendments that are before you tonight, we're going to talk about some updated allowances for our freestanding signs for these large scale buildings. We're going to talk about adding some additional signs that will help encompass the size of signage that we need for these large buildings and then talk about some new sign standards that we see that are very unique to these industrial parks that our current ordinances don't already allow for. And so I'll take you through each of these changes

um so that you can see exactly what we're talking about. So the first change in the ordinance affects section 114-66B2. And this is where we talk about freestanding signage for individual buildings. And so the freestanding signage is going to be those monument signs that you see out front of a singular building. Um and right now we allow signage one per building. Um the only exception that we currently have is if we have a building that's on a quarter lot with access from both rows,

then we'll allow a secondary sign for that type of situation. But whenever we're looking at these very large warehouses, what we tend to see is that they have very um long frontage. The linear frontage of those buildings is very long. And so especially if we were to split those long buildings into two and two different buildings or two different tenants on each end. Uh we do see a need where there could be additional signage that's needed along that newer road frontage. Um so this addition is going to add an additional to allow for a secondary freestanding sign whenever we're dealing with a building of a certain size. And the standard that we put on these type of buildings is it has to be at least 500,000 square feet in size. It has to have at least 1,000 ft of building frontage along that road. Um, it needs to have multiple access points, so at least two access points. And then those access points or the additional signage needs to be spaced at least 500 ft apart. Um, and so if you're familiar with the warehouse that has been built at on Highway 280, that's what this image is here. It's just down the street from the Loves. Its on Highway 280 roughly about 1500 linger feet long and it has those two access points, one at each end of the building. And so this would be an example where they could qualify to have a separate freestanding sign at each of those entrances. Um, and so this is the first change that staff is recommending in order to help accommodate that type of development as occurring. And so for this particular scenario, are there any questions on that? So anything that meets the criteria now they can just come to staff and that will be retroactive and they can go ahead and get that extra sign they need.

Yes. Once this anticipating that this will be approved with the board of commissioners at their meeting next month once the ordinance is enacted then they could come in for that additional signage without having to adjust for I know that you mentioned that this would be particularly helpful especially if there's more than one tenant but this would be allowed even if it's just one tenant right yes there's nothing currently in the draft ordinance that specifies that it has to be a multi-ened that was a concern or something that the planning commission wanted to recommend.

But there's also no requirement that from the other end if there's two tenants that you have to do this that you have to have two separate signs. That's right. The other thing is another likely scenario that split up could be they only have 500 ft. They're still only two. So that might be an opportunity where they would have to share signage. That was going to be my next question. If uh they had more than let's say three or four tenants, it's still only two signs. It's still only two signs.

Okay. And they're subject to the new height requirements as well. So for this scenario, this is the freestanding signage for one individual building and so they are subject to the current height restrictions which would bring and this is comparable to other communities and other

heard restrictive And now we'll move on to the next section. So section 114-67 addresses signage across a building site. And the biggest constraint that we saw with this section is we tiered these um sign allowances. And so for a building that's zero up to 5,000 square feet, we set an aggregate cap. And so we said across your entire site, if your building is up to 5,000 square feet, then you're going to be limited to no more than 150 square feet of signage. And so they got to choose in some ways how they wanted to split that signage across their site. They could apply that square footage to a freestanding sign. They could apply it to a wall sign. They could split it up between the wall sign and the freestanding sign. But across the entire site they were capped at 15t. And then we went up incrementally up to a building size of 45,000 square feet. And so as we're now looking at buildings that are 500 or larger. You can see we're at our current standard forecast based off of a building of 45,000 square feet that trying to apply that aggregate signage to a building site that is 500,000 to a million square feet or more is very challenging and wasn't getting them the type of signage that they needed in order to clearly identify their site. And so we had to look at incorporating some additional signs so that we could do some incremental increases in order

to get signage that was more compatible with the building sizes that we were seeing. And so we introduced three new tiers with this amendment. Um the the highest tier is going to be for that 500,000 square foot or larger building, but then we had to fill the gap from 45,000 square feet up to 500,000 ft. And so that's where you're going to see those lower two two tiers that we introduced. Um so with our new tiers now, we look at buildings that are 45,000 up to 149,000 square ft. And we're giving some what we think are appropriate allowances for signage for that range. And then going from 150,000 up to 490,000 square feet, establishing an appropriate allowance there. And then we have or more. Um the other thing that we looked at with this was removing the aggregates. So instead of saying if the building size is this big, you're capped at 400 square ft, but you have to decide how you're going to split that up amongst your site.

So we thought it was more appropriate to make sure that each time that was allowed for that building site to have a cap.

Um and so that way we know that All signs for this size building should be kept at this size regardless if you have a freestanding sign or not. Um otherwise a building site could elect to throw all of their signage into a wall sign and have a much larger wall sign than maybe a joining paper. So I incorporated into this um some sample images to to let you see these new tiers that we established. And so you can real life example of what that size would look like. So for that lower tier that we're establishing, the 45,000 square feet, that's 149,000. A great example of this sized building is the Woodring Suites that's just been recently constructed up on the north end of the county. That building size is just over 49,000 square feet. So it's definitely on the lower end of this tier. Um but for this new tier, we're allowing up to 200 square foot sign. And so you can see with the whispering the existing signage there is about 94 95 square ft of size. Um so this is something that would fall into that that first lower tier that we're establishing. Um for the next tier that we're looking at um the Daniel Defense building that fronts on I6 this is an example of a building that would fit within that tier. Um for this size building we're capping wall signage at 300 square ft and from this example you can see the existing defense signage is about 190 square feet. So it fits below what that maximum cap would be. And then for that largest tier that we're looking at, um the Comar building recently developed on

the north end of the county. It's about 760,000 square feet. So this is our largest tier. This is the the largest size that we would be looking at in terms of signage. And we're looking at capping that tier at 400t for our wall signage. This sign is about 30. So that gives you an idea of what size sign that would look like. How would illumination play into affect if Daniel like the Daniel Defense or any buildings like that that have road frontage itself? Is there any restrictions on how bright they can light these signs up or whether or not they can use like digital aspects on them or no?

Um so we do have they can be lighted. We do have a lighting ordinance that addresses um lighting within our industrial and commercial districts. Um and it particularly focuses on properties and neighbors. It's a little bit different when we're talking about something like defense because it also reflects that I and so obviously G has some control that too distract. Okay. Just wanted to make sure because as the signs get bigger of course they may get brighter and I didn't know if there's any particular restrictions on how they get lit especially the way finding signs and the road signs too as they get larger.

Yeah. Yeah. And we do we have some controls within the sign that talks about illumination. Okay, I just have a question for clarification because I think I confused myself. Everyone under 45,000 square feet has 150 square feet. No. Um, so with the existing tiers, it was let's see because I know in the beginning you mentioned up to 5,000 square feet. They can split up the 150 square feet if they wanted to. Yes. Okay. So, and that was example that I used for that building size that grew from zero up to 5,000. Okay.

In the existing ordinance the other then went from 5,000 to 14,999 and then we had a a group for 15,000 up to 45,000 and so that's where it stopped. So with those incremental adjustments that um 5,000 to 14,999 they had 200. Gotcha. And then for 15,000 to 45,000 300. Okay.

Amanda, um for the hotel there, since it comes that the road comes in there by the pilots, uh are they going to have to have two signs of pointing so people know how to get back there to the hotel? Are they going what are their plans? Do you know? Um, are you talking about coming off of Highway 280 as a new commercial park?

The developer has not proposed any signage up at Highway 28 to direct back to the Woodr. So, I don't know if they're planning to do anything with that. Um, Woodrself, um, they have frontage. They have frontage on the new interstate drive that provides access And they have wall signage on both sides. Okay. I have one more question. Sorry. This is for all new development or anyone with an existing signage right now that can can like they upgrade.

Anybody who wants to upgrade their signage would be eligible under whatever ordinances like that. Gotcha. Okay.

Sorry. I think just of the future, especially like the large warehouses and maybe they have shared space and we have one owner and maybe renting out spaces and you know over time how you put these big wall signs on and then the sun and it kind of almost as a shadowing when the business goes out and they take their um sign. Do we have anything in our ordinance that requires the owner of the building to say they have four spaces that are divi subdivided inside one and one goes out and it becomes empty and they take their sign down like they should. Um, but it looks faded and it's bad and it's got the

the dirt from the other. Do they have do we have anything in our ordinance that would require the owner of the building to clean and paint just to keep it nice looking? That would be covenants. Well, we have general property maintenance standards that we do enforce and so I think it would probably depend on the severity of what that looks like and and whether or not we could say it looks so that it would fall under a violation for property maintenance requiring action.

I asked because everything now is so shiny and new and it looks so good but as I travel throughout Georgia I see places that you know maybe due to economy or whatever um and it it looks it looks bad and usually these industrial parks just like the residential areas they have like an association and they have covenants that they have to abide by. So I think that would be first. They have a HOA. They have nature. Okay. Okay. Good to know. Good to know. All right. Any other questions on the science?

So then the last part of the ordinance and our changes that we're proposing, this is what's going to introduce two new sign types specific for our business and industrial parks and the industrial districts. And so I want to be very clear that These allowances are not going to be for an individual building on state 280. Um, this is very specific to an industrial park where we have multiple buildings that are sharing internal roadways. Um, and so this really gets to the subject of the most recent variance request that's been on your agenda for wanting that that sign out front to help identify their industrial park. And so right now our 12 foot tall sign. That's the maximum you can get for anything. Um and in doing, you know, more research, looking at other communities for these type of industrial parks, um staff is recommending that for these type of parks, we allow a development entrance sign a maximum height of 30 ft as long as it's set back 35 ft from the public in order to help identify that um business location. And So the example that I have on the right of the screen, this is a 30 foot tall sign. This is existing. It's in Effingham County off of Highway 21. And the setback is is approximately about 35 to 50 ft. So in the range of what we're looking at. So this gives a real good example of what that type of signage look like if we approve it through these ordinance. Um the other thing about these type of signs and the ordinance, we do talk about panels. They want to include tenant panels on this sign in order to identify the different tenants or businesses that are in the park. There are some forifications on the colorist.

So they can't use corporate colors or franchise colors. It has to be consistent with the design of the color scheme and they all have to be matching on the sign in order to eliminate some distraction. also um requiring that these signs be submitted to us as part of the master sign plan. So we're not just reviewing the singular sign. We're reviewing the different signage that's going to be incorporated within the park and we can make sure that the color schemes are going to be matching with the overall park design. So staff feels like this does a good job helping to establish some architectural controls while also giving more visibility to the industrial developers what they're looking for on those arterial roadways. Um the other type of signage that we're introducing is the internal way signs and so this is signage that's going to be internal to the park. Um this could be established internal intersections to help identify which way to go for certain businesses. So, as you're navigating throughout the park, um you have some idea about, you know, where to go for for certain buildings. Um and that's something that our current ordinance doesn't provide for because we didn't have a need for it, but we do see it perment. Um so, we're recommending that that be permented at a maximum height of 12 feet with a 50 square foot sign. And again, that would be subject master sign also to make sure that everything's consistent in terms of design.

And just for clarification, no digital signs, correct? No digital signs. Um digital signs considered as you'll recall was our first review and it was very limited to gas pricing. Okay, good.

I'm not introducing anything new with the industrial developers for that. Um so that's it. That that's everything that's contained within the ordinance. So what we're looking for today is obviously input from the public if anybody's here to speak and then also discuss from zoning commission but at the end we'll be looking for that recommendation from you whether to make a recommendation to approve the amendments to the board of commissioners approve the amendments with adjustments should you choose or denial.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Since you deal with this a lot, I guess my only thing for discussion is um I know we've got that 35 foot setback. Is there anything that you see with trucks coming in and out that would preclude them from being able to see to get out on the highway? Because I remember that was the big discussion with that aspect when they were asking for the 50ft sign so that way the trucks can see the delane. Yeah. Does anybody have any questions or discussion with regarding this matter? Okay. Do we have any speaker slips for this particular matter? Anybody from the public wish to speak in reference to this particular condition?

Okay. Anybody? Okay. Can I get a motion to close the updates to the ordinance for the Brian County sign regulations? Motion to close. Second. All in favor? I Okay. Can I get a motion to vote for or against? Make a Got it. Go ahead. Okay. Um I'll make a motion to approve the ordinance to update the Brian County fine regulations by amending the sections um as per um as outlined in the agenda. I second. All in favor?

Any oppose? Any abstain? Okay. Motion to close. Uh, can I get a motion, please, to close planning and zoning commission public hearings? Make a motion to close. Second. All in favor? I. On to other business. We've got none. Is there any other business that had popped up that needs to be discussed? I have no other business, but just like the board of adjustments by our board of commissioners. So, we're happy to have her first. Welcome speech. Just kidding. We welcome you.

Okay. Any discussions on the topics for today before we No. Motion to adjurnn. Can I get a motion to adjurnn, please? Oh, wait. Never mind. Wow, look at that. We have a time machine. I figured I'd go back in time. Second. All in favor? We're closed.