County Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Planning Commission to order. Please rise for the invocation.

Dear God, we ask for your wisdom and discernment as we review the plans and proposals before us tonight. Grant us the clarity to make decisions that promote fairness, sustainability, and our well-being of all our citizens. Help us to listen to one another with respect, to act with integrity, and to keep the long-term needs of our community at the forefront of our work. Thank you. Amen.

Now we have the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Okay, we'll have a roll call to determine quorum. Jolly Peterson Jr., I'm here. Melissa Yancy. Ernestine Stavall-Goolsby.

Here.

Angela Ingram.

Present.

Danny Foster. Here. Okay. Quorum is present at this time. Okay. The next item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes. Do I have a motion for the approval of the minutes as presented?

Mr. Chairman? I move that we approve the minutes as presented.

I second.

Okay, all in favor state by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay.

Mr. Chairman, can you please go back and approve the agenda first? Oh, I'm sorry.

Okay, because the approval, that was on the out of order on here. Okay, so let's go back and let's do approval of the agenda first. Okay, so I need a motion for the approval of the agenda.

Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the agenda as presented.

I second.

Okay, all in favor state by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed nay. The motion passes for the acceptance of the agenda. Okay, the next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes for May 14th, 2026 planning commission meeting.

I make a motion to approve the minutes for the May 14th, 2026 meeting.

Okay, do I have a second? Okay, we have a second. All in favor state by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed nay. Motion passes. At this time, the next we have is the public hearing rules.

Mr. Chair, if you'll just give us just a moment. We're taking a look at the PR to find out why it's not playing through the speakers.

Okay.

Each speaker must sign their name to the appropriate zoning case sheet and fill out a public comment form to register and intend to speak prior to the start of this meeting. Each item of business shall be handled in order that it appears on the agenda, unless upon motion of the Planning Commission the order is changed. A member of the planning staff will present each item to the Planning Commission and will further provide recommendation upon each item of business. The zoning applicant or the agent will state their name and address at the podium and will have 10 minutes in which to make his or her presentation. Any portion of their 10 minutes may be reserved for rebuttal following the opposition to the application. After the applicant's presentation, all registered speakers who wish to speak in favor of the application will then be heard. Prior to speaking upon the item, each registered speaker will state their name and address at the podium. They will also be limited to a total of 10 minutes. Once the applicant has made his or her presentation and the speakers in favor of the application have been heard, the secretary will then call upon the registered speakers in opposition of the application. The opposition shall likewise be limited to a total of 10 minutes. Once the public hearing portion is closed, no other speakers will be heard. As a reminder, speakers are to address the Planning Commission, not the applicant or the audience, and are expected to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner. The use of abusive or profane language shall not be allowed. No debate or argument between speakers shall be permitted. After all public comments have been heard, the Planning Commission may elect to hold general discussions. the Planning Commission will vote upon a recommendation that will continue forward to the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners public hearings.

Okay, the first item under new business is item are one rezoning case are easy to 026 dash 01. I'll ask the staff to present the report, the staff report.

Good evening, members of planning commission. Alright, so the subject property for this rezoning application is 2101 Dalton Industrial Circle SE. This is a request to rezone the subject property from the M-1 Limited Industrial Zoning District to the Office Institutional Zoning District for development of a dental office and other professional office uses. There was a previous request on this subject property in 2024. That request was ultimately withdrawn and not further considered by the board. Here's an aerial of the subject property with the little arrow there. Here's a photo of the subject property, courtesy of Google. Here's a view of the future land use map. So the subject property and the surrounding area is located in the Technology Park future land use designation. Here's a larger view of the surrounding area. So everything you see in the darker gray is Technology Park future land use designation. Here is the current zoning map. So the lighter purple is M1 Limited Industrial. That darker purple is General Industrial. And to your upper right, that green is Residential Zoning District. Here is the proposed site plan submitted by the applicant. So the proposal includes usage of the existing footprint. So the plan would be to internally renovate and do some exterior renovations to transform it from the present auto service related building to a dental office and accessory office uses. So staff has reviewed all eight of the approval criteria for the application. And so we were prepared with a recommendation for this case. However, we wanted to bring to the board's attention the applicant is not present for this meeting. And so we would recommend that you all defer the application. We'll give the same recommendation to the board. We'll redo this process during the next cycle or the following cycle to allow the applicant the opportunity to be present to answer any questions that you may have and to speak about the request in greater detail.

Okay, at this time we have a public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak in favor? All those in favor will have 10 minutes on this item collectively to speak. Do we have anyone in favor?

Okay. Could you state your name? I'm James Leeward, A&J general contractor. I'm one of the contractors.

Okay. Go ahead. And Dr. Agatha, she's trying to help out the neighborhood. She wants to bring in some medical facility, some professional cares and stuff in that neighborhood. Behind her is a lot of residential, but there's no care in that area. So she's just trying to improve the neighborhood.

Can I just ask you a question? Is she currently in the area as a dentist? Yes, she is.

She's in Conyers already. She's also in Covington.

Covington. Okay, thank you.

Where's the location?

She's right across from Home Depot, but she's going to be leaving that location. And she's moving her location to Covington, you know, because of the expenses and stuff, you know, they're gouging her. So she really can't afford to stay across from Home Depot. So she's trying to move to Covington and then come back and try to do her own thing where it is affordable for her and giving the right care for the neighborhood without trying to gouge them because, you know, the expenses that she has. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Okay, anyone else in favor?

We have two folks signed up to speak. They're neither in favor or opposition. I will start with Ann Sapp.

This was in favor or opposition?

It's N.A. in favor and N.A. on opposition, so I'm not sure. Okay.

I defer to next week. Okay. I was actually here to comment on the data centers, but they told us that we couldn't do that.

That's correct. So you have to comment on the, this is a public hearing for this item that's on the agenda. Two agendas went out. So tonight's agenda for June 11th, and there's a special called meeting at the Planning Commission for next Thursday, June 18th at 6 p.m., where the UDO will be presented again. And yes, inside the UDO, there are data center regulations. A new draft will be out tomorrow for everyone to review prior to the special called meeting. So you'll be able to find that on our website under Planning and Development. So navigate to the RockdaleCountyGA.gov website, go to Planning and Development, and we have a new UDO section, and it says UDO Draft. You'll be able to see every draft from start to finish, and a new one will be posted tomorrow.

You're welcome.

Next is Sarah Kennedy, neither in favor or opposition as well.

I was here to comment on the same thing that Anne was, so I defer to next week. Also, a question about the UDO. You're saying when we went onto the website, I've had several people say to me that they've been trying to submit edits or comments and that it's not working through the website.

Is that the roddelludo.com website? It's Yes, it's the one that you just... We found that, yes. We have that problem as well. That's why we've moved everything to our Rockdale County Planning and Development website that just happened today. So we're placing everything out tomorrow morning, let you guys know where you can find everything, and then the next draft of the UDA will be placed on our website and a comment form. So there's a comment form for you to go ahead and make public comments. the UDO directly on our website rather than go into that rockdaleudo.com that was our consultants website our consultants contract has now ended so that website will now disappear and it will all move to our website but no information will be lost between the transition we've copied everything exactly from that rockdaleudo.com to the Rockdale County Planning and Development website So all information, you'll be able to find it there. And it is active now. It's all fixed and the comment forms up. Both meetings are listed because we'll have a public hearing on June 18th. Another public hearing on June 25th for the Board of Commissioners. We're recommending adoption on July 14th. effective date of the new new UDO will be September 8th so that's the planning staffs recommendations of course that could change based on feedback from the public comments suggestions from the board members and the Planning Commission but that's the estimated schedule sure and I apologize I'm brand new to this process but number one so at that meeting we will then be able to make comment specifically in relation to the UDO the one that you're putting out

Today or tomorrow? Tomorrow, yeah. OK. Yes. And how much difference is there between the one that we had access to two weeks ago to the one that's coming tomorrow?

There's significant changes. That's why we're holding another. That's why there is a special called meeting. So if we make significant changes to the UDO, we have to bring it before the public hearing cycle again. So it's in its third public hearing cycle. We're on our fifth revision of it. So since the beginning. So it's been about a year and a half process. So, but yeah, you can find all of the drafts and see those transitions on our website.

Okay, so then for the people who are listening live stream, can you say the website that they can go to to submit those edits one more time so they can all hear it?

Yes, so there are two ways right now. So rockdalecountyga.gov, that's our Rockdale County website. navigate to the department planning and development on the left side there is a menu option you will see UDO unified development ordinance right under that you'll see UDO draft public meetings you'll be able to see previous meetings if you click on the public meetings portion there is a comment form where you can fill that out and that comes directly to staff and leadership and those are made part of the record during the public hearing cycle

Because I know over the last two weeks I've had a bunch of people emailing me saying like, I've been desperately trying to send edits and it's just not going through. And I was like, well, we have this meeting and we're supposed to be there.

If they were using that update button, that was generally just to collect emails to send out updates from our consultants. And so now that we've transitioned and taking over that community engagement piece, it'll come through us now. We also have the UDO email, and so you can submit comments there as well. So that's UDO at RockdaleCountyGA.gov. And so that's another avenue. And then you can show up in person next week and following week to make comments. And what was your name again? I'm Jessica Paulette, project manager. Nice to meet you.

Thank you so much for your time.

You're welcome. Okay, so if there's no more comments at this time, we'll close the public hearing. Planning Commission members, are there any discussions on this side?

No.

Nope.

So we're going to defer voting on this until July meeting.

August 2026.

Yes, August.

Okay, do I have a motion to recommend deferral of item or one are easy to 0 to 6 days 0, 1, 2, deferred to all this 2026.

To make a motion to defer are easy 2026 dash 0, 1, 2, the August. Monthly meeting.

The date of August, I'm sorry.

August 20, yes.

OK. Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay, all in favor state by saying aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Okay, the motion to defer this item is passed. Okay, at this time we'll have reports on this portion of the agenda. This is an opportunity for staff and members to provide updates or share information. No votes will be taken during this section unless an item is specifically listed for action. The next Planning Commission meeting will be a special call meeting on June 18, 2026 at 6 p.m. here in the Assembly Hall. staff doesn't have any reports okay if staff doesn't have any reports and there's no further business before the planning commission I will now call for a meeting to adjourn this meeting Mr chairman I move that we adjourn this meeting at 619 p.m. do I have a second second okay motion carried all in favor rather by state by saying aye aye those opposed nay The motion carries. This meeting is now adjourned.