County discusses rezoning of land for potential travel plaza at latest meeting
Several public hears for zoning were held at the most recent meeting of the Gordon County Board of Commissioners Tuesday night.
The major petition for rezoning was an application by Patrick Davis and Ted King to rezone two parcels of 15.28 acres and 34.64 acres at the corner of Belwood Road and Union Grove Road from A- 1 to I- 2 for the construction of a travel plaza / truck stop. It came before the Board with recommendation for approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission.
During the public hearing, several spoke; while no one opposed the requested rezoning change, concerns of traffic and safety issues with the proposed location being close to Belwood Elementary and the new Exit 310 off of I- 75 were brought before the Board, including a traffic light installation request proposed for intersection.
According to Ross Grimble with Resource Consulting, the site civil engineer involved with the project, the construction planning is still in early stages of the technical analysis, and no time frame, or size of project, could be offered until the rezoning request was approved for the yetto- be- named travel plaza; citing that once the approval was made, further studies and planning was begin.
“In regards to safety, this developer, as well as myself, want to develop a safe site. Georgia Department of Transportation, with the construction of Union Grove, actually control everything that happens to that roadway,” said Grimble of a proposed traffic light at the intersection. He assured the Board that, once planning begins, the developer and engineering firm will work closely with the county and GDOT on any safety issues. Grimble did tell the Board that a rough the estimate of traffic generated by the travel plaza during a 24- hour period would be 1500 to 2000 automobiles per day, which is a normal pattern, with the number of tractor trailers being estimated at 600 to 1000 per day. “That is something normal that could be expected,” said Grimble.
The rezoning request for the preliminary project was approved by the Board with the stipulation that the development must comply with all the recommendations of Gordon County Department management concerning safety directions and traffic issues.
A rezone request