Board denies Columbia water park rezoning

Location of proposed Scuttle’s Island at issue.

The decision to allow a $20 million water park to go up near Grovetown now rests in the hands of the Columbia County Commission after developers and public officials failed to resolve a dispute over building permits and infrastructure concerns.

The disagreement came to a head recently when the Columbia County Planning Commission voted unanimously not to accept a request by Benjamin Bell to withdraw a rezoning request to construct Scuttle’s Island, a 45-acre water park being planned on Louisville Road.

Bell said he and the project’s developers had hoped to refile “when we’re ready and the county is fully on board,” but the planning commission reportedly grew tired of waiting for documents showing that the proposed site could support the volume of traffic, wastewater and noise pollution associated with a water park.

Consequently, Chairman Jim Cox said, the board voted unanimously to recommend that the county commission deny Bell’s rezoning application.

The commission has the option to approve, deny or table Bell’s rezoning request, or allow him to withdraw his application as he initially sought last week.

“No one is saying we are against a water park, but we do not want to force this type of a facility into a location many believe to be suspect,” Cox said last week. “Every time I turn around, another red flag pops up that makes me want to take a step back, and it’s the same for many people in Columbia County.”

Since October, Cox said, the county asked Bell to provide an approved site plan, and federal and state permits showing an expanded Lights of the South property had adequate infrastructure to serve upwards of 300,000 customers each summer in an area protected by federal wetland and flood laws.

The attraction would be served by two-lane roads, septic tanks and drain fields.

Andrew Strickland, Columbia County’s planning services director, said Bell has provided an Army Corps of Engineers permit to disturb 0.21 acres of wetland and 140 feet of stream for Scuttle’s Island.