Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'm calling to order the Columbia County Board of Commissioners July 7th, 2026 meeting to order. If you please join me in an invocation. Gracious Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for 250 years of our country. Lord, I praise you for just the many, many blessings you bestow on not only Columbia County, but the greater Augusta area. Please be with all those that go down range to protect us, as well as the first responders who are out on the road as we speak now. Ask all these things in your precious name. Amen. Join me in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Let the record show we have a full quorum of commissioners. Commissioners, you have the minutes from the June 16th, 2026 meeting, commission meeting in your packet. If you've had a chance to review them, I'll accept a motion to approve them.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to accept the June 16th commission minutes as well as the executive session minutes as presented.

I second.

Any questions? All in favor, raise your right hand. Two for one is approved. Let's see, presentations. We have a special recognition presentation, the chief for the Columbia County Fire Rescue 2026 boot drive. So come on up, chief. The show is yours.

Hello.

There we go. So at the top. So every year, firefighters stand out in various spots in Columbia County and collect funds for two amazing organizations. So we have Steve is the, I just learned now, the CEO of the Burn Foundation of America. And Logan is the board president for Columbia County Community Connections. And two amazing organizations that we worked so hard to be able to have partnerships with and support each other. So it means so much to me to be able to present these checks for $28,000 and some change. And what's so wonderful about it is this community trusts us to do that. They walk up, they put cash in the boot, they smile, they think, the kids climb around the trucks. They believe in the organizations, they trust in us, and that's what's beautiful about this community. So I thank you guys for what your organizations do, and I thank the community for supporting all of us.

Well, thank you, Chief. And I'll just second that about our great community. This wouldn't happen without the community that we live in and, of course, the surrounding communities that come in here to shop. And we're so thankful for them as well. But Burn Foundation of America, we're seeing people every single day providing services to patients and families being treated over here at Doctors Hospital, which houses the largest burn unit in the country. And it's largest by over half. And three helicopters were in and out of there today before lunch. So it's happening every day. But thanks to the men and women at Columbia County Fire Rescue for the leadership and leadership here in our great county. And it goes all the way from Chief Wallen all the way down to the guys that are first starting out. When you go out there and see them on these boot drives, they're interacting with people. They're just simply striking up conversations and thanking them. And they just love what they do, and it's just nice to see. And I say this every year. I hope I never need them, but if I do, I've seen them in action, and I'm glad that they do what they do. So we thank you, and thanks to this great community as well.

You know, Columbia County Community Connections, I think, brings awareness to a pretty important piece of our community. There's a lot of us that have blessings in this county, and there's a lot of us that need blessings still. And so, you know, we're just so happy. I think this partnership's happened for many, many, many years. So we're just so, so blessed to have you all in our corner. I think the children of Columbia County... that need those blessings are so happy to not only climb on the fire trucks, but also receive these funds. And we look forward to serving our great county for many, many more years to come. So thank you for your contribution.

Thank you.

We'll take one step back and... approve the agenda. I don't see any changes. It's ready for your approval, Mr. Chairman. It's approved?

Yep.

We'll go straight to the consent agenda. Commissioners, the items on the consent agenda have been through the necessary committees and received the necessary votes to be placed on the consent agenda. So if they meet with your approval, I'll accept a motion to approve them all.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to accept all of these items on the consent agenda as presented.

Any questions? Motion to second on floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. On to the debate. Commissioner Malheur, I believe you are up.

I make a motion to approve the second reading of resolution 2614, amending the fee schedule for development services.

I second. So this is the second reading of an update to our fee schedule for our building standards department. You'll see most of these are clarifications. We do have a new software coming out. This is going to make it easier for folks that are applying for permits electronically to actually pick the correct permit to apply for. We also created a foundation-only plan, which will allow you to pay 5% of your building fee up front to have your foundation approved. And you also have some EV charging station that was previously not included in our fee schedule. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Questions? Got a chance to review it? Motion and a second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. That motion carries. Chairman Couch, I believe you're up.

Yes, sir. I make a motion to approve Resolution 26-15. Second. I would like to note that this resolution is one way that we've worked to reduce property taxes over the past few years. In addition to House Bill 439, we've also raised the exemption from $2,000 to $10,000. And I am very pleased to share this evening that it is our intent to go to the rollback rate for the 2027 millage rate.

Scott, do you want to explain what that means?

Yeah, just to be clear, so on this particular item here, this is pursuant to House Bill 439. This is the legislation that we championed here in Columbia County, and Vice Chair Couch worked very diligently on, as well as the rest of the board, to allow the additional homeowner... to allow the homeowner incentive program. This actually is a mechanism we need to be able to give the taxpayers back their money. We didn't have that before. So she mentioned that we were already, last year we did an additional 8,000. We passed that last year. The voters passed that. This is allowing the Board of Elections to do a call for the election to allow us to do up to the constitutional minimum amount, which is another $18,000. So every bit of this is our attempt to lower and ultimately eliminate the homestead property taxes in Columbia County. We're still going to continue to push for that constitutional amendment. It's going to require some work, but the vice chair and I will be testifying in front of a house subcommittee relating to property taxes and Columbia County is leading the way on that. And then as she also mentioned, This is one side of it. So when you look at your multiplier, you have one side, which is the value of your property minus all the exemptions that we continue to add on, hopefully getting that to zero. The other side is the multiplier, which is the millage rate. This board's been very diligent to lower that millage rate every year. for the last, I think, nine out of the last 10 years. This will be 10 out of the last 11 years. The only year we didn't do that was the COVID year. We left it the exact same, but we've lowered it back to the rollback rate many times. What's significant about the rollback rate is a lot of people just got their assessments in the mail and some people's property values went up. The rollback rate is actually designed to make that a net even amount for the taxpayer. So even though the property value went up, if we were lower the millage rate enough to be able to offset that, i.e. the rollback rate, which is a calculated rate that's supposed to make it net even, then we could do that. It's difficult for us to go to the rollback rate, but we have been such good stewards of the county's finances for so many years. We think we can go all the way back to the rollback rate this year. It was my recommendation not to do that. It was my recommendation initially to just lower it a little bit. But this board is serious about doing that. So we've come up with a way to go all the way to a rollback rate again this year. So if anybody sees other places having hearings on their taxes and advertising a tax increase, even if they're decreasing it, they'll wonder why Columbia County is not having any hearings. It's because we're going all the way to the rollback rate, as far back as we need to go, and we'll make it up. We'll do what we need to do to make sure we provide the level of service our citizens need. need. But what you have before you here today is a resolution directing the Board of Elections to allow the citizens to vote on House Bill 439. Again, just one of the steps we're trying to do to eliminate property taxes.

Second to the last step, right? We've got one more.

We have one more. We have a constitutional amendment that we need to get. So this one's actually capped at $18,000. So we want to be able to give it all back to the property tax. If you own your homesteaded property, I think it's the intent of this board and certainly the intent of the staff to give all of those property taxes back to the homeowner.

I just wanted to make a point that getting a bill through the House or getting anything done in Atlanta is not easy, and for the folks here who may not know how it works or what all goes into it, we've all been to Atlanta doing things and talking to people, but especially Vice Chair Couch and Chairman Duncan has spent a lot of time in Atlanta pushing this and making it happen and talking to folks and all the things that have to go into it and I just wanted to say thank you to the two of you for your time and effort because it was a lot. It was a heavy lift and to get it to this point means a lot. Thank you.

There's a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor raise your right hand. That motion carries. Mr. Malir, I believe you are up again.

Yes, sir, I make a motion to approve the alcohol beverage license for Jones Creek Golf Course, contingent upon the acceptance of the kitchen by the county staff and health department.

Second.

Where's Tripp? He's not here for that, I don't think. Well, he's not here for that one, too.

Mr. Nanny, do you have comments on the alcohol license today?

I was told to wait until your motion, which it sounded like it was to approve, but if there are any questions, I'm happy to answer.

Just making sure.

Yeah, no, we're good.

Thank you.

There's a motion second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries.

I make a motion to approve the request for a variance to section 9135 for property located at tax map 068 parcel 1667 for additional wall signs subject to the conditions enumerated in the June 18th Planning Commission report.

Second.

So this is for the Applebee's out of the Gateway. They are looking to change their signage. The signs they are looking for exceed what's allowed by code. They're looking for 89 square feet per elevation for awning signs. Wall sign on the west elevation is 140 square feet, and the wall sign on the east elevation is a maximum of 27.25 feet. You've seen the display here showing all the different signs they're looking for, and they did receive a recommendation of approval with conditions.

Do any of the other businesses out there have any comments or complaints that they're getting extra?

Not that I've been made aware of. They've not been made aware of.

Do we feel like this is going to set a precedent for other businesses asking to exceed the signage if we let this go through? No, ma'am. Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

No, sir.

Motion to second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries.

I make a motion to approve the request for a major pud revision for property located at tax map 065, parcel 251, to reduce the rear setback from 50 to 25 feet to allow space for a pool. Second.

So this is in River Island, excuse me, in Riverwood in Chambers Retreat. They do have a 50-foot minimum build line along the golf course. They are looking to reduce that down for this property down to 25 feet to allow for the construction of a pool. We do have a letter of support from the HOA as well.

Questions? Motion to second on the floor. All in favor raise your right hand. That motion carries.

I make a motion to approve the request for the major PUD revision for property located at tax map 077H parcel 369 to reduce the rear setback from 10 feet to two feet to allow a pool to be constructed within the rear setback and subject to the conditions enumerated in the June 18th, 2026 planning commission report and to approve the easement encroachment agreement.

Second.

Mr. Larry Carter.

good evening my name is larry carter a little forty one sixty five ten will drive. I was not able to address this issue with the planning committee because I did not find out about the zoning request prior to the meeting I was not notified and the sign of the property was at the end of a cul-de-sac I rarely go down. There are multiple large mature trees on my property Jason to the fence separating our properties. The Georgia legal case, Willis vs. Maloff, establishes that adjoining landowners must manage their side of a boundary line so as not to unreasonably injure or destroy or destabilize a neighbor's trees. Changing the setback from 10 feet to 2 feet is overly aggressive. the trees will cause severe biological and structural impact on my trees and create subsequent safety hazards for both parties. The trees critical root zone will most certainly be damaged. Several of the major structural roots will cause irreversible decline and death and compromise their stability resulting in a falling hazard toward the planned pool and home. a two foot boundary leaves no margin for error for construction equipment soil collapse or future property maintenance. Proceeding with construction at this distance may lead to liability risks the homeowner and pool construction company. professional arborist has evaluated and confirmed this information and this is documented in his official report Hopefully you got a copy of that report if not I got it I'm requesting that the proposal to change the setback from 10 feet to 2 feet be denied and that further Evaluation be done to determine a reasonably safe distance for digging a pool based on the scientific recommendations of the arborist.

Thank you Chris he referenced the law

So the general rule is a property owner can do what they want on the property, right, as long as it doesn't interfere with another neighboring property. And that is the cases that he's referring to and other cases don't really reflect this particular situation. From what I can see, and this really would be a civil matter between the two, and I don't give this as legal advice to them, But I would imagine that this person can put a pool there. He just has to use ordinary care not to damage the trees on the neighboring property.

What's going to keep him from doing that, to make sure he uses extraordinary care from damaging the trees on the property?

Well, it would be the neighbor that has to... police said I would imagine. But if he doesn't do it there is again a civil claim against his neighbor and of course if he believes that what's what's happening is hurting his trees there's always an injunction route. But, again, overall, this would be the equivalent of saying that he wouldn't be able to plant trees on the backside of his fence because it would damage the root of his neighbor. I don't think that you can tell a property owner what they can do with their property. But what he's doing is, in fact, hurting. He can turn it into a civil matter.

Yeah, I looked at your email. Did the arbor say it was like a 40% chance?

I'm sorry did the was the arborist report didn't it say it was like a 40% chance of doing damage to your trees or what was no I said with a critical root zone area and then he actually on the page five he kind of outlined the critical root zone area and it extended well over the property line so the problem is going to be is not immediate it's going to be when the next one to three years those trees are going to die and That's pretty certain. I mean, based on what the arborist is saying. And that means there's going to be very large dead trees along that property. someone's gonna be responsible for hiring a company come in there go back there remove these dead trees and it's so there's there's gonna be an issue it's not gonna be immediate but there's no question those roots can be damaged you can tell that on the diagram that the arborist did and so it's just I mean two feet just seems a little excessive I mean I nice neighbors I don't have a problem having pool but there's gonna be an issue of those trees when they die and I don't seems like allowing a two-foot seems aggressive. It's going to put me in a bad position in a couple years. Who's going to pay for that? To have those trees removed, and when they fall on the pool or on his house, who's going to be responsible for that? And so I'm trying to anticipate in the future, and like I said, I have no problem having a pool, but there's clearly going to be some damage to those trees.

Well, surely they're not big right next to the fence line, are they?

as far as building the pool right next to the fence, or is it... We don't have a full set of plans here in this packet of how they're going to do it. They do show a retaining wall in that area, so it might not be... 8 foot of excavation it might be a foot of excavation to then build a retaining wall fill then the pool sits behind that but again i don't have the full construction plans i will answer your question i did pull the data that he said it said based on the data collected a strong estimate could be declared that up to 40 percent of the critical root zone has the potential for critical impact in certain areas very vague That's what I was thinking when I read these. The way this, if you look at the drawing here, the entire pool is not two foot up against the property. It's at an angle, so I understand what his concern is in that area. I just want to point out it's not the entire length of the fence. It's the top third.

Just one area, one small area. Okay.

This driver also, could you explain to them about the liability if that tree that he owns falls, that he doesn't have liability?

So the dangerous tree law is essentially if you just have a tree, let's just say, I mean, we had a lot of trees that went down in the hurricane, right? If you have your tree that goes in your neighbor's yard, it's really on the neighbor for the damage that's done. Where there's a caveat to that is if you have a diseased tree or a dangerous tree, as they say, and you give the neighbor notice or they have notice and they don't do anything about it and then it falls, then the neighbor whose tree its property is on is liable. In this particular situation... He wouldn't have any liability. There shouldn't be liability.

I learned that rule after Helene.

If these trees die, I'll be liable when they fall. I'll be liable to go in and have to have those trees removed. Otherwise, I'll...

It was the other way around.

If it falls, you won't... No, but if the trees die, which is... what I'm concerned about. If you keep a dead tree on your property, then it's your problem. It's my problem.

Again, if this turned into a civil matter, I mean, if a tree actually died because of what happened, then I would assume, I've never had this case before, but I would assume that the fault would be on the person that destroyed the tree, and you would not be liable. Okay. I mean, But again, I can't give advice to you.

So basically, he'd have to prove the fact that they caused the damage to the tree in order to not be liable.

First of all, he'd have to have proof that he knew about it. I see it's in the back of his yard, that he knew that it was dangerous. I have doubts that his neighbor would give him notice that he's got a dead tree when he's claimed that it's his fault.

So, Matt, like you said, the two-foot is just one little corner.

Correct. It tapers further away. So it's not like going exactly two feet all the way down the property line. Correct. If you actually look, I can't zoom in here, but it actually says four points.

My name is John Edry. I'm the neighbor, homeowner. The pool is not going to be up to two feet next to it. It's actually going to be further than that. it' s been a long time since we' ve had a hurricane. In regards to dead trees they' d fall in my house and hurricane helene you did have a tree hit my Yeah, it's not two feet The construction is going to be kind of staggered. It's gonna be greater than two feet probably at least five feet That's in regards to the plan. I didn't have official.

Yeah, the drawing says four point two feet I can I can forward it to you. So this constitutes notification to you that that if the trees die and they're they need to be removed that you'll handle that or if they fall on your property you'll be responsible for that. I'll be happy to do that.

There is a dead tree from Hurricane Helene that is still there. I don't know how you want to handle that. I'm happy to work it out for you.

Thank you very much.

Well, after that lesson in trees, there's a motion, a second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries.

Next, I make a motion to approve the request for a major S1 revision for property located at tax map 082, parcel 076A for medical office use. Second.

Second.

This is a current S1 use for a daycare. They're looking to change that to have a medical office use in this location. Owner of the daycare had some issues and decided to sell out. A new owner wants to do medical use treating children.

Is there any comments from the direct neighbors?

No, ma'am.

Thank you.

Any questions? Motion to second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries.

I make a motion to disapprove the request for major PUD revision for property located at tax map 060 parcel 1695 for proposed single family development.

Second.

So this is a request to change this PUD to allow the use of residential in the area highlighted here. It currently is C2 commercial.

Any questions? Motion to second on the floor. All in favor raise your right hand. Motion carries. That's the next one you wanted to discuss.

Yeah, can we hear the information first before I decide what my motion is? Can we hear from staff?

Was that to disapprove? Yes. Okay. Sorry. I had thought after the last meeting the motion was to recommend approval. I was just going to see if anything had changed since then. Eric Beddingfield, 2159 Father Gill Drive, Archipelago. I was just going to ask what the disapproval was.

The Planning and Zoning Commission is a recommending body and so while staff makes a recommendation, they make a recommendation. When it comes to us, we are allowed to make our own decision, taking into account their recommendations. Okay.

Okay. So that was to disapprove then? To disapprove. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

You're on seven points.

We're on seven. I'd like to hear from staff and comments first before making my motion, if it's your pleasure.

This is a major PUD revision for 785 Jones Creek. It's a PUD. This is for their amenities area. When this PUD was created many years ago, they did not spell out setbacks for our amenity area, so therefore they fall under Section 90-147 of our code. However, this pool area was built prior to that section existing. So what they built does not meet current code. They are asking to expand some of their facilities there, which means they have to meet current code. Well, they can't meet current code with what's existing. So they're asking for a revision to the PUD to set standards. So currently they have a minimum setback of 50 feet from property lines for pools and tennis courts, a minimum setback of 25 feet for any buildings on the property, and a minimum 20-foot structural buffer along any property lines adjoining residential use. So three different setbacks they're having to meet. So what they're asking to do is, Renee, is there another one? There you go. I'm going to give you the best illustration I can. They're looking to add this section to the pool house. This is to put in some ADA restrooms. This is to allow for more storage for pool equipment. Here there's a proposed 20 foot minimum build line from the parking lot. So that currently would be 25 foot. They're asking for a five foot reduction along that line. You're also seeing a 25-foot minimum build line that should go here. Clearly, the pull house does not fit inside that, so they're asking to drop that down to six feet in this area. So the 25-foot will remain in that area, and the area along the pull house will be dropped down to six feet. And then the pull-out line is somewhat here. They're asking to... do a 40-foot pool setback line here, a 35-foot pool setback line here, a 40-foot pool setback line here, and they meet the 50-foot setback as code exists here. That's the gist of it. Be happy to answer any questions you have about this request. I believe there are some folks that want to speak about it as well.

Okay, so the new addition, which is up against the parking lot right there, The parking lot belongs to the clubhouse. Is there any comment from that landowner?

I don't think we've heard from the clubhouse owner. We've heard comments from residents out there that are concerned with storage of materials, lay down of materials. Their concern is that the clubhouse parking lot owner would not allow the contractor to use their lot. Their concern was they would then use the cul-de-sac down here. That is not allowable. You can't store construction material on a public street. Uh, we did, we did hear that concern.

That's a valid concern. And it being that, that the clubhouse parking lot belongs to the clubhouse, not the pool and HOA, um, here is what happens if the clubhouse owner balks at having construction traffic on his private asphalt?

That would be a civil matter between the pool and the clubhouse parking lot owner. They would have to work that out. Obviously, with a public road, they could pull in, stop the trailer to unload. We do allow that by code. We're not going to allow them to store material in the right-of-way, but they can park legally, unload materials. You see that on every street, right? Furniture truck pulls up in the front, unloads on the street. So wouldn't be allowed to store, but they could unload from the public road.

From on Tyndall down here. Okay, so there is access. Correct. Just not storage. It might be inconvenient. There's room to store it in the woods here. I mean, they had to. Okay, so I checked that box. Now, on the lower side on Tyndall, there's a 20-foot buffer to the pool deck and 40 feet to the pool.

That's actually a 20-foot structural buffer. The pool deck would be a 40-foot pool setback.

Okay. And that's nothing new or expanding. That's just bringing that part, just giving it a thumbs up.

Ending appliance, correct.

Okay. And let's go over to the northwest side over here.

Okay.

looking at the existing buffer, I see the 20 foot looking at where the, the footprint of the existing pool house is, is this showing an expansion to the existing footprint or this is only the same? It's like very same.

That part of the pool house is the same. The expansion is North East.

If we give a six-foot buffer along the back, could they expand their footprint into those little incense?

It would be ADA. Yeah, they are currently, I believe, at eight and a half feet. I think so. So that gives them two and a half foot of air while they're building. So to expand further back towards that property line, I don't see any value to that. Okay.

And do overhangs and awnings count when you're talking about the setback?

They do. That's why there's the buffer there.

Okay. So if the, I'm just making sure I understand. So if they stay on the same footprint of the building, but have an extended awning or, um, overhang, it could go further into that buffer.

It could go closer to the property line for, for about two and a half feet. Correct.

Okay. But not over the property line.

Well, if you have a minimum build line of six feet, they cannot get any closer than six feet to the property line.

Even with the overheads? Even with the overheads. Okay.

And... You didn't know you were going to get tested today, did you? I got Mr. Scar over here.

I just got to make sure I understand because I got to make a motion. I need to understand. Okay. I've got more questions. Let's hear from the speakers, please.

Trip.

Chairman commissioners trip nanny I live at four one one three here to dridge in Jones Creek also in Evans obviously appreciate the opportunity tonight And thanks to the Planning Committee for their unanimous approval on this project. We're not trying to do anything different We're trying to expand the building on the existing footprint away from our property owners towards that parking lot We had discussed it with the parking lot owner. Y'all may remember we do have perpetual use and access to that parking lot He owns it, but we've been in good communication. We're pretty good partners

with him.

He was here by default at the planning meeting for another reason, so he saw and heard everything and has made no comments since that time. we' re not adding a new amenity what we' re doing is replacing a facility that' s been there for 35 plus years we want to repair the structural deficiencies if you' ve ever been out there if you' ve had a child on a swim team our bathrooms are 35 plus years old we spent numerous dollars on flooring and amenities within those restrooms and they are not up to standards for a community like ours anywhere in Columbia County. Our pump house is undersized to handle the volume of water to stay with state codes. We need to expand the pump room. That was the original reason that this issue came up. To expand the pump room, we have to expand that building. We don't have anywhere else to put a pump. We're not ADA accessible. You cannot get in our pool access or anywhere in the restrooms if you're handicapped. And we need to do that. And we want to do that, but we need to have a bigger building in order to do that. So it comes to those reasons. We were going to try to piecemeal it together, but we're going to tear it down, down to the ground. We've had flooding problems. We've had plumbing backup issues. We want to fix all of that. Our plumbing drains towards Tyndall, but we've got to get bigger pipes and get rid of all of those tree roots and everything down there that's been causing these issues over the last five or six years. Okay. The new building has been very thoughtfully designed. We've got a good partner in Clifton Construction. We're looking forward to having an amenity that our neighborhood can be proud of. We've got it planned with approval tonight. We've got it planned. We think perfectly that they'll start in September and we'll have it open prior to April. We need to be out of his parking lot in early March at the latest so that his trucks and food and Masters things we're not in their way and that's what we agreed upon So we respectfully ask for your approval to redo this 35 year old building make it something we can be proud of any questions

Mr. Naney, at one point, because I know you've been working on this for a long time, at one point there was some talk about the fence between this property and Mr. Carter. Will there be a new fence?

In the planning paperwork, there's a new fence. There's going to be a landscape buffer, and it'll require variance, but the HOA, which I know some of those people will get that approved, we'd like to put an eight-foot fence up above the six-foot fence requirement in Jones Creek, so we'll probably go to eight feet maybe even higher pending what you guys approve But yes, they we are going to come back There's not an existing fence on our part of the property right there It is the neighbors fence, but the entire fence is going to have to be approved for code and regulations We currently have a chain-link fence and those under the new issues. Those are not allowed. It has to be a non scalable fence for a child But yes, that's in the paperwork we submitted to planning and zoning I

Very good. Are there other speakers?

No.

Mr. Carter, you live next door to this. Do you have comments or questions?

I live next door. They've been using my fence for the last five years, which doesn't meet code. I think that these changes they made in the plans from two years ago should be acceptable. They're moving away from my home and not closer. They said they're not going to put a second story where they have a balcony overlooking my bedroom. They say they're going to put up an eight-foot fence and have appropriate landscaping buffer which they were completely moved about five years ago. I don' t know if all that' s true because some of their plans aren' t finalized. If they follow through on what they said then I' m okay with that. I have concerns about them following through but what was presented I' m okay with. It can' t be a second story building closer to my home. They need to have a fence their own fence not my fence and they need to be appropriate buffer between my home and they tore that down and just been ignoring any concerns for my privacy for years and have known about it and you all have told them that their fence that they have that my fence doesn' t meet code and they haven' t addressed that and had plenty of opportunity to do that. So those have been my concerns. I'm okay with what they presented, assuming it follows through and that they're held to that in the future.

Very good. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Mr. Slaughter, with these plans and bringing everything up to code, they would have to do a fence, the appropriate fence.

Absolutely. So Mr. Scarberry, before he can issue a CO, the fence is going to have to be in place. What about the buffer? All that would be in place prior to the CO. Yes, sir.

Just want to make sure.

Okay. You ready?

I'm ready. Is there a motion in our future?

Yes, sir. I make a motion to approve the request for the major PUD provision for property located at tax map 078 parcel 057U to establish development standards for the community pool area.

I'll second that.

Any other questions? Good. There's a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor raise your right hand. Motion carries.

I have one more, sir.

Yes, you do.

I make a motion to approve the request for a change in conditions for property located at tax map 073G parcel 082 to remove the condition that only one massage business can operate from this subject parcel. Second.

So massage is a conditional use, and in 2015, the Board of Commissioners did allow the conditional use, but they had a caveat that only one business could operate on this parcel. The request is to remove that so another business can open on the same parcel. This is a, I wouldn't call it a strip center. They look very professional buildings, individual tenants, looking for more than one massage license on one parcel.

Any questions? Motion is second on the floor. All in favor, raise your right hand. The motion carries. Mr. Carraway, I believe you're up. My turn.

I make a motion to approve an independent contractor agreement with 11X U.S. Incorporated to purchase a smart parking system for the parking deck and parking lots around the Performing Arts Center, an amount of a one-time capital cost of $323,265.99 and an annual amount of $37,230.48. Mr. Johnson is going to take this one. Do you have a second?

I'm sorry. I'll second. Okay. Yeah, I'll take this. So we presented this at committee. This is a smart parking system. This allows us to be able to display the amount of parking spaces that are available in and around the Performing Arts Center, specifically in the deck. But I think there were some questions about whether or not it was restricted to just the deck. The answer to that is no. We're doing all the public parking on that side. when we have large scale events, sometimes it's very difficult to, to find parking. So we, uh, look to technology as a solution to be able to help with that, to make sure that we're maximizing what we have in space before, before what we have in place before we spend any additional money, uh, for additional parking. Uh, I will say that once this was pushed to the debate agenda, so we can have some, some further conversations about it, uh, that staff went back and, and work with the, uh, with, with the, the folks that the exact park folks, uh, and, uh, A couple things came out of that. First of all, our annual amount was actually reduced. They were able to sharpen their prints a little bit, which was good. Anytime we save money is a good thing. And then I believe at the committee meeting, we spoke about the app that comes with it, and we found out that the app was not included, that that was an additional add-on purchase. But they have since agreed to add the app in for this one-time purchase. So we do feel like it's going to be beneficial for the area. Okay.

So citizens can download the app.

Yes. Yeah. When it first came to committee, I thought it was just the parking deck. And when you explained it was the whole area, I think it's going to cut down on a lot of people looking for parking places and not paying attention where they're going. They already know they're going to a spot and they'll know where to go. Yeah. I think it'll be, uh, be a safety issue too, as well. So I like it.

Any other questions? The motion is second on the floor on favor race, right hand. All opposed? Motion carries four to one. Excuse me. Seeing no legal matters or requests for review by committee, we have public comments. Helen Willingham, Christina Willingham, Terry Gross, and Diana Silas. Which one do you want? Whichever one wants to speak. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, come on up, please. If you will, ma'am, please state your name and address in the records.

Good evening. I'm Hella Willingham. I'm the president for the Willingham-William estate. I'm not the administrator. The administrator is out of town. So I'm here in his place, Eugene Willingham. Thank you. We the family of Willingham estate, we had some concerns about some issues that we wanted to bring up. The first one is the water. We don' t have access to the water on the land. The land was purchased in 1945, which is almost 87 years old now. Our grandfather was a sharecropper. He farmed the land. He went way to Thompson, Georgia on a wagon and mule carrying cotton, fruits and vegetables and just share with different people and make it for a living for everybody. And we the family, we feel like we want to do the same because there's going to come a time in our life that we're going to need each other. you know, to provide because you see now in the world, fires of a happen everywhere. I mean all over the place and we don't have access over there to the water, the county water over there and we just like to know that if you know we'll that we could be get the purchase over there for the water, you know to be run, you know, so more so more than 10 this can come over there and we want to Do the land like our grandfather did, like he left behind. We want to do the same in his name to honor him. He was born in 1885. That's a long time. I mean, I can look around. When I first in the county commissioner office over here in the other building, I had to stand up for terrorist drive on, you know, getting the road paved over there. So here I am back again with new faces and had met anybody that is a care we'll talk to him on the phone. But anyway, in the role paving. We would like to see you know that the role can be paid if it's a young will to do so. But anyway, then to go back to the to the water. In the 1960 something I think the old house got burned down had no access to water, but when we'll you know get the water to could have saved the House, you know they had a fast that you I mean, you know not if I say but the water speak it on the outside, you know have a host run up try to put the fire out but they didn't have that either so they could have got burned up but thanks for the grace of God, you know that they would say so we as the family want to carry on his legacy. And then to the the side is not all important, but we just like to know if it is anyone knows you know why the road would change from what I have drive to be had dry. We know we that we have 2 families. have access to property to, uh, beside us. But if it's in your will, can someone let us know, you know, why was it changed? What purpose would it was, you know, changing the name? I mean, it's not all that important, but we just like to know.

Yes, ma'am.

So how close are to the water? That's what I was going to ask.

There's a 12 inch water. We're talking about beehive drive.

Correct.

The closest water line is actually on Mistletoe Road. There's a 12-inch line there. The closest hydrant is about 350 feet from Beehive Drive. Beehive looks to be about 2,000 feet long from its intersection from Mistletoe to the last house on the road. Hard to tell here exactly where the road ends. There's no right-of-way for the road. It's a prescriptive right road based on our Our maps here, again, these are not perfect, so we'd have to do a lot of research to see if we actually have right-of-way, but it appears that it's a dirt road on prescriptive rights.

Is this something that, you know, I'd like to make a recommendation that we could take this under advisement and work with these... owners and and come up with a solution see if there's something that we can do I know that when on the several times I've spoken with their family I think they all feel a little they all want the same thing but they all feel a little differently I think the name on the road is is an issue but I just like that so we could get an understanding because I'm not sure we all are in a position to do anything other than if we could just pull it back and work with them and see if any of these requests are feasible. And I'd be willing to spearhead that.

I mean, you can do the research and say, to get water, this is what it's going to take. Yes, sir. To pave the road, this is what it's going to take. Yes, sir. And then the name of the road gets changed.

I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Kennedy or Mr. Blanchard.

Mr. Blanchard has the background.

They did submit a petition for the road name about a year ago. They worked with the GIS department staff, and there's a couple of, I'll say the county code has a couple of conditions there that a road name change doesn't meet. There's a condition in there about the road name has to not be repeated in the county, and there's already a Willingham Drive. So essentially, we've got Beehive, and then Willingham Drive comes off of that. And the petition was for Willingham Drive, rather Beehive, to be renamed as Willingham Drive, and then for the current Willingham Drive to be Willingham Circle. And typically, when those things come into GIS, they work with the citizens as much as they can to but that's one of the things that the per County code it's, it's strongly recommended. It's not strictly for, it's not forbidden, but it is strongly recommended against any road name change per County code is, is, is typically discouraged. So the staff is aware of the situation, but it can be done if it's the will of the commission.

I think name is important. Yeah, I do too. So, um,

I wanted to address something too. I'm the daughter. I'm Christina Willingham. And I just wanted to address something because we had a meeting in, uh, 23 of 2023 with, uh, uh, Kyle Titus and, uh, the committee. And at that time, uh, there were, uh, some members on there, the operation matter manager that was there. Mark. Um, also, um, like I said, Kyle Baskley was there and, uh, Kyle Tyson, uh, Tyson, which is the division director. Um, Also, we tried to meet with Mr. Gordon, which was establishing about the water at one point in time. That was 2023. And then we had Helene Storm came through, and then there was a lot of implementing of trying to get the restructuring back. to everyone's community, of course. Everything was destroyed. So we had to get back on the agenda of making phone calls. Just want to iterate something. Now, during Helling Storm, we at one point share that driveway with the Tankersley. And a lot of you may know the Tankersleys. That's on the other side. So they share our road to go through. And at that time, FEMA was coming through with their trucks and had a contract. So with that being dirt, you have commercial vehicles coming through. You have just your regular people that come through that just wear and tear. There's a big ditch on there on one side that somebody could slide through. We just want to make it implementable that if it gets paved, it'll be more pass-through-able for someone to come through, especially with someone that's coming through with big, large trucks that need to come through and buy. we're paying at least about $13,000 to $14,000 in taxes a year. And if you implement that, it's going to a school, it's going through 911 and so forth. And we just want to ask of that, that, you know, and then of course the water, because there are houses there, that we want to validate water line just as well as the paving, because they just paved Mistletoe Road. So we want to be able to just have it beautified as far as looking presentable, because it is Columbia County. There's a park there, Mistletoe, so forth. And as far as the name change, On the map, it is Willingham. It's drive, circle, and at one point, somehow, probably before, because I'll be 52 this year, so at one point, I never remembered it being Beehive Drive, but when we had the meeting, the map showed Willingham Drive when we had the meeting in April of 2023, and it was never brought to our attention at one point that it was going to be changed or how it got changed to Beehive Drive, and we would just like to see that implemented as well.

Also, I'd like to add, this might not be permissible, but my father, he helped build Clouds Hill Dam. He was a wonderful sawyer. I mean, he really worked. He worked at Mistletoe doing the same thing. And when I think about the water, you know, I say, you know, it's kind of strange. And I was one of the relatives that helped build the dam. I said, we can't get a little water here. But anyway, so it's a long story behind our family, a long history. If anybody cared to come and ask someone about it, we would be more than happy to share it.

Can you guys come to an agreement to have one person represent so we can sit down and meet with you and go through these one by one? Is that good? Or maybe two? It's where it doesn't have to be everybody.

Right.

I'd love to join you on those if you have those meetings. That'd be great. Yeah. So if y'all could do that and then get with Patrice Crawley, if you could get with her and we'll set up a time and go through that and see what we could do on these things.

Okay. Okay. We appreciate it. You're welcome.

Thank you. Good to see y'all in person.

Bye-bye.

Timothy Ulrich.

If you will just please state your name and address for the record sir and take five minutes name is Timothy Aldrich I'm at five one five Pond Street in Grovetown well Grovetown mailing address anyway Wanted to talk about taxes I've heard that you guys are decreasing the millage and I'm all for that But my taxes are set by your Commission's property values are set if on that form when I get mailed your you know your property is worth such so so much like mine is worth you guys say about $150,000 if I could increase that I would end up paying more taxes but if for some reason there's a lot of construction going on around my area new new housing is being developed if they wanted to buy my property, then it would be listed as being worth more so that I would get more for it because I wouldn't want to sell it at the current rate because that's too low for me. I'd be willing to pay a little bit more in taxes to have a buffer saying it's worth more to me. And I think if you added that across the entire county, a lot of people would say their property is worth more to them than and increase their property taxes voluntarily, and that would increase how much money you guys have. Now some, as I heard some laughter back there, some might say, oh, well, I want to decrease mine. Well, let's say I decrease mine to, I said my property's worth $10, and my taxes go down to one cent. Well... you have something called eminent domain and if you want to take my property for $10 and then resell it for $150,000 you keep the profits and that would discourage people from dropping their property values but if somebody says you guys are currently valuing their property at $150,000 and they think it' s actually worth only $100,000 if they think it' s worth quite a bit less It's not worth it to them to file a lawsuit and try to get it changed If they just put it on their property that it was less and you guys think it's more Eminent domain it they're happy with getting a hundred thousand if you can sell it for 150,000 There's more money for the county.

So in eminent domain, we have to have a, if we're taking that property, we're going to have to appraise it and have an actual value. So we couldn't just say it's $10.

You can't go off the property tax value?

No, it's got to be appraised.

And we can't just take it because it's cheap and it looks like a good deal.

It has to be for a reason. There is actually precedent for that. the Supreme Court has ruled that if you can take property from one owner and give it to another for increased tax revenue that is a permissible public use.

When that happened Georgia passed there's a lot of states that did this. That's not exactly how it went down but I understand what you're saying and when that happened Georgia passed protections for property owners. One of those protections is that the county has to have your property appraised It has to be for a public purpose. I can't just give it from A to B. Can't give it from A to B.

Excellent. Well, thank you for the information. But I like the way you're thinking.

Okay, we're going to have a line forming over here afterwards. If you want us to raise your value.

If I can just address that one other piece, because I know people may be watching online or maybe go back and watch this later. So we are... The law is very clear about how we go about assessing values for property. And it's actually not done by the Board of Commissioners. It's actually done by the Board of Assessors, which is independent of the Board of Commissioners. But there are very strict guidelines as to what they can use and the comps they have to use. And then we have to be within a certain threshold when we're audited by the state. So we can't artificially give anything a higher value than what the comps give it. Yeah.

I'm not asking for you to give it a higher value. I'm asking for property owners to be able to give it a higher value.

But they can't. They can't either. They can't. We couldn't record anything. Even if you said yours was worth X, Y, Z, we couldn't record it. We couldn't tax it at that rate. You couldn't voluntarily allow your property to be taxed at a higher rate. We are mandated by the Department of Revenue to appraise it or assess it at a value based on comps.

Well, that just throws my whole thing out. Okay. Well, thanks for letting me talk. Thank you.

All right. Thanks for coming.

I'm Morgan Evans. If you will just state your name and address for the record.

My name is Morgan Evans.

If you want us to raise your property taxes, we can't do it.

I am not here to talk about taxes. My name is Morgan Evans. I live at 1341 Royal Oak Street in Grovetown. So I'm here to respectfully request that Columbia County conduct a formal traffic engineering evaluation of the open median on William Few Parkway serving the Kroger Marketplace, McDonald's, and the neighboring businesses near the Lewiston Road intersection. My reason is deeply personal last Wednesday my daughter and my niece got into a t-bone accident. My niece was fine she had some injuries to her hip. But she was able to go home that night however my daughter was a different story she sustained most of the impact and had to be transported by ambulance she also had to be extracted from the vehicle. From the fire department. both rear and front doors had to be removed as well as the B pillar so my 17 year old daughter suffered extensive bruising to her left leg and arm along with two lacerations to her spleen this led to a three-day hospital stay she requires a cane to walk currently is considered a fall risk and cannot navigate the home independently. So her recovery time is going to take about three months So she's about to start her senior year, which is hard for a 17-year-old. So as difficult as this experience has been, right, I'm not here to blame anybody. What I really am asking for is just this reevaluation and the safety of this intersection. It's pretty notorious, apparently, here in Grovetown. I did start a petition, has about 337 signatures so far, and that's just starting from yesterday. So what I'm actually asking for is to conduct or request a formal traffic safety evaluation of the open median Review the past five years of crash data to determine if maybe it needs to change evaluate access management, traffic control, and median modifications, and then share those results with the public. I do have the buy-in already with the Traffic Engineering Division. Jacob Wallace has been emailing me and said that he's already started a safety analysis, but I wanted to come here today and get your buy-in as well.

So, Matt, steps would be... We've actually already started.

We've actually already started. We actually have pulled three years of traffic... Data already, I believe it was 28, 29, let me check, 28 crashes at this intersection. Let's see, 10 injuries out of those 28. So we are looking at it. We've actually already got a concept put together.

That's the five-year?

That's three years. Three years. Most of these are angle intersections, so somebody pulling out in front of someone else. what you have at this location, based on what we see with these traffic accident diagrams, the classic collision, McDonald's at the intersection, and you have classic collision. Classic collision has a full-access driveway directly across from Kroger's full-access driveway. So anybody that goes to McDonald's, MedNow, classic collision that wants to go left, go west on William Few, they come down to this intersection, which allows them to make a left out onto William Few Parkway. If you're headed east on William P. Parkway, there's two through lanes and a left turn lane to get onto Lewiston Road. The right turn lane, people turn right on Lewiston to go south towards Grovetown. That backs up. The Good Samaritans leave gaps. People pull out thinking they've got it clear. They don't know that second lane is there.

That's exactly what happened to my daughter, by the way.

They catch a car. Based on this, that's what we see. So we're looking at that. How do we prevent that? Good Samaritans are trying their best to let people through when traffic's bad. Unfortunately, it causes a lot of problems. Hard to fix that problem. We've looked at a concept of taking away the left out of Classic Collision and the left out of Kroger. You would be able to make a left in to both businesses, but you couldn't make a left out. That does come with some problems. Anybody that's trying to get back towards the Grovetown High School area would not be able to make a left out of any of those businesses on the south side of the road, so we've got to consider how do they get there. Well, the easy thing to do is make a right Then make a left on Lewiston, go down to Bluegrass Trail.

We call that taking a long way around.

And be late for class. We're looking at traffic patterns. If you fix one problem, do you create another problem? That's all things we've got to look at. We got the email this weekend, I believe. Yes, sir. Jacob, I believe, reached out to you yesterday. Yes, he did. We're early into this stage, but we're taking it seriously. We saw what was going on, and we're looking into it. We'll get you the information as quick as we can.

That's the county road, not part of the state route. It is the county road.

a nice quick work to you by the way. I hope your daughter gets well.

Thank you.

It is a very busy place. Susan Warren, 5129 North Tubman. But before I talk about what I came here about tonight, I just want to ask one more time about the question I asked back in May. Why can we not change our data center ordinance to include... Surety bond a performance bond or something for future data centers. I asked last month and Is this so yes, I asked last month and you said You I believed you said there was some consideration, but there was no answer so Has that changed not yet?

There's also not another data center

Not what?

Not another data center.

Really? I guess the rumor mill is very high right now because there's several things out there that they're talking about.

I'm sure people want some with what they're paying.

Okay. And now on to this issue. The least concerning issue, unless you want to stop in one of the... Mag7 firms like Microsoft and Meta is money. Per CNBC, between these seven companies, they lost $2.3 billion of value. That's 10% of their stock value. Some of them lost more than others. Microsoft, 20% in June. Nvidia, 13%. And both Apple and Amazon are down 8%. A lot of the billions of dollars they've invested in AI is in debt, and investors want to see a return on those. We are now in the third quarter, and jittery investors are waiting for those second quarter earnings reports. Another CNBC report addresses the problems data centers will face with chronic climate hazards. Not acute, one-time issues like tornadoes and hurricanes, but chronic effects of severe climate-induced events such as flooding, extreme winds, and wildfires that can disrupt operations, increase downtime, and increase insurance and repair costs. A climate risk analytics firm, First Street, addressed 97 global data center markets in their report and found 79% of the data center capacity could be affected. The report went on to say most underwriting for real assets still uses historical data, but the climate is no longer behaving the way the historical record would predict. As heat, drought, and water stress increased, outdated models simply don't offer a complete view of risk anymore. Not taking climate change into account and only using traditional metrics for those developments might impact long-term operations for data centers who are typically expected to operate for 20 to 30 years. I know water usage has many opt-in for closed-loop systems, but one city had an extremely bad experience with that. Cheyenne, Wyoming's closed-loop cooling with Meadows Cheyenne Campus resulted in their Board of Public Utilities no longer accepting industrial wastewater from data center fill-and-flush and closed-loop systems in March and now has a suspension that covers every data center connected to city services due to a finding of the discharge water carrying Gillarday. and metal-resistant bacterium that interfered with two water reclamation plants and pushed the reuse system offline for months of cleanup. The concern extended past the bacterium because closed-loop systems can carry glycol and other chemicals that municipal treatment plants can't process, and their city sprays their city sprays the reclaimed water on parks, golf courses, and other green spaces, and they worried the bacterium could become an aerosol hazard during spraying. Then on July 2nd, what I figure was the most relevant thing to us, the government issued a federal alert to grid operator PJM to cut electrical consumption as it battled generator outages and massive overloads on its transmission lines during the prolonged heat wave. In return, PJM notified industrial and residential users with contracts for mandatory consumption cuts during emergencies and activated to increase reserves and avert outages during peak demand. Their contracts for these pay them to cut consumption. Neighboring regional grids, including New York and the Midwest, were notified that there might be export shortages so that they could plan if necessary. Sixty-seven million people in the Mid-Atlantic, South, and D.C. rely on PJM for their power. Even before the heat wave, PJM was straining to overhaul a system pushed to the brink by surging demand from data centers and electric cars. When usage neared the all-time high on Thursday evening, there was a sharp and sudden drop in generation capacity, and the fossil fuel peaker plants were brought online. That's fossil fuel plants. PJM's peak instantaneous load Thursday was about 163 gigawatts, but that load was suppressed by the purchase program curbing the electricity usage. However, the spot wholesale electricity prices in that area surged beyond $2,500 per megawatt hour, which compares with about $50 or $40 per megawatt hour when PJM is operating normally. And the surge mostly reflects the expense of providing power across congested high-voltage power lines, according to both PJM's operations data and industry analysts. So you're telling me tonight there are no more data centers coming?

I have not been advised yet. I'll say this. PJM is not very efficient. When I went to Washington back in December, the Department of Energy was working with them trying to get control. The good news is we have Georgia Power, and so they're prepared for issues. The best thing we have is Georgia Power. They're in control, and they have a great plan, especially with the data centers paying all their bills. cost up front, all the build-out cost to increase the system.

I agree that PJM is probably very good with running their system, but Georgia Power at some point may have to buy electricity from other grids just like this sale that PJM was having to pay for at $2,500 a kilowatt hour. And we are having heat waves here, increasing our heat wave here in the Georgia area also. We're increasing our drought here. The last thing we need is more data centers. So I hope you're correct. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. I think we have two executive session items. Mr. Carraway, they are yours.

Sir, I make a motion to accept the donation of a temporary construction easement from Evans Enterprise of Augusta, LLC, parcel 072A-110 for the Washington Road Corridor Traffic Improvements Project.

Second. Second.

This is about 175 square feet of temporary easement for us to install some new signal equipment at the Elvis Locks Washington Road intersection as part of the turn lane project.

Any questions? No. Motion and second on the floor. All in favor raise your right hand. The motion carries.

I make a motion to accept the donation of a temporary easement from Calvin Tolbert, parcel 062-1710 for the Horizon South Parkway and Chamberlain Road connector project.

Second.

About 435 square feet of a temporary easement for the construction of the Horizon South connector.

Any questions? There's a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor raise your right hand. That motion carries. I believe that concludes our business. Only one more motion needs to be made.

I make a motion to adjourn.

Second.