Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the order of the June 4th, 2026 Columbia County Planning Commission meeting to order. Please stand for the invocation by Russell Weiler and the pledge of allegiance by Jamie Lester.

Y'all would bow with us, please. Dear Lord, we want to thank you for another beautiful day. We thank you for the rain you blessed us with that we needed so dearly. We ask that you look over this meeting tonight, look over this county today, tonight, and that the people that look after this county are fire, fire, Sheriff's Office in Gold Cross. We ask that you give everyone a safe journey home from this meeting tonight that took time out of their week to be here with us. All these things in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,

We do have a quorum this evening. We have one absent. Gentlemen, you had time to review the agenda for the previous meeting. I need approval of that.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the minutes from the May 21st meeting. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Gentlemen, I need approval of the agenda this evening.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion for the approval of tonight's agenda.

Second. Hold on. We're going to add those two items.

With adding two final plots. Two plots.

Two final plots.

Highland Lakes and Wrights Farm.

Okay.

I'll second.

I have a motion on the floor and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries for the agenda this evening. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to clarify that the Planning Commission is a recommending body of the Columbia County Board of Commissioners. The decisions made on rezoning and variance requests tonight will be forwarded to the commissioners for final action on June 16th, 2026. If you wish to address the Board of Commissioners at their meetings, please see Ms. Mixon to obtain a request to speak form. Any request with a public hearing will have a minimum of 10 minutes permitted per side for the presentation of opinions, data, and evidence by proponents or opponents of a request. The applicant will be allowed to speak first and any member of the public may speak after. Either side may cede their time during the hearing if they so desire. getting into the agenda tonight. Um, we have two, two final plats. Um, Oh, you want to do the massage? Okay.

Uh, one relocation of Island wellness massage LLC, uh, the one twin or fellow road, uh, they're in onsite and a mobile massage services. Uh, she has all the requirements. The ordinance staff recommends approval of her request.

Okay. Massage operator's license, H1A1. This is public. Okay. Do I have a motion?

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the massage operator's license for Island Wellness Massage LLC at 120 North Bel Air Road and Mobile Massage Services.

Second.

I have a motion on the floor and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. And so getting into the public hearing, we're going to go to the two final plats.

Yeah, we'll do the Highland Lakes West section two first.

Okay, Highland Lakes first. Go ahead.

Request for a final plat off William P. Parkway, about 43.12 acres, currently is an R2 residential for 92 lots. Shows location based on the back half or back end of Highland Lakes. Shows the final plat itself, an existing site. Staff recommends approval of the final plat for Highland Lakes West section two.

okay and i've got to get back let's see the highland lakes investors two llc um well these aren't these aren't uh okay so do i have a motion mr chairman i make a motion to approve the final plaque for island lakes west section two off william few parkway second I have a motion on the floor and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. The next item is final plat rights farm. Will?

There's a request for a final plat for rights farm section four, lots 285 through seven, located off Reynolds Road, 14.2 acres, currently zoned to planning and development. That's for 23 lots. Shows location of the property, again, off Reynolds Road, basically the section of rights farm. Shows the final plat itself. And is it, is it, is this existing site as several as approval of the final platform rights form section four?

Thank you.

We'll, uh, do I have a motion? Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the final platform rights farm section four lots two 85 through three zero seven off Reynolds road. Second.

I have a motion on the floor and a second for rights farm. All those in favor raise right hand motion carries. Next item, public hearing, H1B1, temporary use authorization. Will?

There's a request for a temporary use authorization, basically a continuance of a TUA, 1003 Robert Moore Road, 1.13 acres, currently zoned RA residential agricultural. So they received approval for this back in October 2024. Then basically a year later it became, it's gone through, it's a one-year timeline. We actually didn't go out there and say, hey, what's going on with it? That's our fault. We basically let it lapse for over six months. There was a complaint from code enforcement on this. Kind of restarted the whole process again. They came in to apply for a renewal of their temporary use authorization. Shows the aerial view of the site. You can see here the camera that's currently being used on the site. And the location of the property, again, just basically outside of Harlem, just to the north of Harlem itself. Again, currently in zone R, it represents agricultural. And this is the October 1, 2024 site plan showing the house we built and also the RV on the site itself. So with a TUA, typically if we're gonna do a renewal, usually there's a reason behind it. What we've seen recently, we've seen folks who had damage from Hurricane Helene. It took them longer to get a contractor to actually either complete the work or follow through with the work itself. Those are ones that they've already acquired a building permit. They've done the necessary steps to get that process going. It's things that are basically out of their control. In this situation, there's been no building permit applied for, no plans shown to us. Basically, for 18 months, there's been no action on the site. So in our opinion with this, we recommend disapproval of the request to renew the temporary use authorization. That includes staff recommendation.

Thank you, Will. Will the owner-applicant, Fortino Gutierrez, would like to come forward and speak? Just state your name and address for the record, please.

My name's Fortino. Address is 1003 Robert Moore Road. Can I please get it approved? Because I don't have nowhere to go. The time that I did get that permit pre-approved, Helene came through and there's no houses to be rented at the time. So that's why I went forward to live in the camper. And I got the plans now that I purchased before I, how do you say it? asked for another reenlisting to live on the property and to save up. I'm the only one working in my family. I got a business. I don't got nowhere else to go. But my equipment is there too as well. It's just really hard for us to to move somewhere else and just not save money to build a house But we got the plans We're gonna try to get the permits and everything to get it built as soon as possible If we can just reinstate us and stay there Please I really appreciate that What was the holdup? the Helene because we We got everything situated where Helene hit, and then that just backed us up with all materials and pretty much everything. But I got a septic tank out there. I got water and light. So everything's working properly. I just put up a privacy fence for the neighbors won't be Basically stealing from us or even just peeing in front of us while they have parties So that's why they called the city on this piece of the fence is a foot fence So I got this I got this from trying to build I'm trying to build a house if I could show you the plans and

Just the size. You don't have to show us plans. What size?

At least 2,500 square feet.

Because, Will, the approval of this goes back into a 12-month cycle, don't it?

That's correct. And the thing to think about with this is that we can only do this once. If we were to renew it again, you can't come back in a year. There's no way for us to let a lot of that happen. What kind of timeline do you have for getting the building permit to us?

As soon as possible. As soon as I could get the stuff printed out, I can get it basically tomorrow. Because I already got the people going to come and work, but I just couldn't get the plans out. They just sent them to me.

When you say you got the people to come and work, is it the people that want to build? Do you have a contractor?

I'm my contractor. I got the license and everything.

Okay. So you're going to build a home?

Yes.

So Mr. Gutierrez, you applied for the first TUA in October of 24. What took us so long to get some plans drawn up? I mean, I understand everybody's behind the eight ball with contractors cleaning up Helene. That's hurt everybody. But I'm just curious, you didn't at least kind of get that step rolling. I did. So give us some good faith on why we could extend.

I did, but I had an injury. So I couldn't even work that much time. So when Ling hit, I worked all that time and I got the plans paid, but they wouldn't send them through email because everything was kind of scattered all over the place. My phone wasn't working properly. We didn't have no light. I was basically living off of a generator at the time.

Were you updating the county on that progress? You were having trouble with getting your plans together so you could at least submit plans even though it might be a year for a contractor to get to you?

We had a house there previous time when we purchased the land, but it collapsed because the person that had the property, they were going to work on it, and they took everything out of it from the inside. They gutted it out, so it made the structure weak. So one gush of wind came through and knocked it down. And so the only thing we had to do was just pick up all the, the remainings. So that's why we went ahead and got the, the, the plans to start a new construction. But Helene hit and it just scraped everything out of the, out of the blue, you know. Because we've been working on there. If you look at it from back then, it looks a lot cleaner than what it was back then. It was messy. It was a bunch of woods, a bunch of trees. We took about 10 dumpsters to clear it out. There's debris, trash, scrap yard, basically everything. Everybody was using it as a scrap yard place just to dump the trash. So we have cleaned it up. And I'm just asking if you can just reinstate that for us, please. And then with the rent, right now it's high. It just puts me in, and I got two little ones, two little boys.

I mean, you see where we're at with...

I know, I understand.

It seems to be going on and on and on, and there's nothing. I mean, you ain't even brought the plans in here for them to...

Or like I say, I got the plans right here in my phone and my email application process. I can get the application going tomorrow if you want.

Any more questions? Okay. Thank you. Anyone else here in the audience would like to speak in favor or against gentlemen, can I get a motion?

Is it possible to postpone?

We could do that. Postpone it for two weeks. He could come get his building permit started. That kind of gives you all some leverage in some respects.

You understand? We're willing to postpone it for two weeks.

And just bring us the plans and get your process started tomorrow, okay? Right. Building permit, yeah.

Applied for. Applied for. It doesn't necessarily have to be issued, but it just has to be at least applied for. That's correct. In the process, and we can update you on where he is in that process.

Okay. Let's do that.

You got it? Yes, ultimately.

Okay.

I make a motion to postpone the temporary use authorization at 1003 Robert Moore Road. I'll second.

I have a motion for... Postponing this.

Just to clarify, to the next June 18th meeting. Yeah, my bad.

Next meeting, June 18th. I make a motion to postpone to the June 18th, 2026, planning and zoning meeting, the temporary use authorization at 1003 Robert Moore Road. Second.

Okay, I have a motion on the floor and a second. All those in favor of this, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Okay, no legal matters this evening. Any staff or commissioner comments? Any public comments or participation? Okay, gentlemen, can I get another motion for the end of the evening?

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to adjourn. I'll second.

I have a motion for adjournment. To all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. We're adjourned.