WALHALLA — Apparently, there is nothing like a major change in membership to inspire a county council to clean up loose ends.

With three council seats changing in January, the current Oconee County Council held second readings this week on a new road ordinance and on revisions to the subdivision portion of the county's performance standards.

That action and public hearings on both measures, along with a third reading, expected next month, would appear to be the easy parts of this clean-up operation.

For the better part of two years, Planning Commission members, Transportation Committee members, Planning Director Art Holbrooks and his staff, Public Works Director Mack Kelly and other highway officials and representatives of the Home Builders Association have been juggling the words and phrases of the new, unified road ordinance.

In the process, a decision was made to strip road standards out of the county's subdivision ordinance for inclusion in the new road law. Sounded easy, but it actually ended up requiring the repealing of an ordinance approved in 2002 and two more ordinances passed in 2006.

Holbrooks said for as convoluted as the effort appears, the intent is pretty simple.

"Several of our ordinances contain road standards," he said. "In some cases, it's not really clear what the standards are. What's going to happen is that some ordinances and portions of others are going to be repealed and one document created that will be much easier to reference."

Efforts to get the mission accomplished have intensified the past two weeks with Holbrooks and Kelly locked in discussions with homebuilder representatives who have a vested interest in the road standards they are required to meet.

County Attorney Brad Norton said this week that officials are attempting to create "one-stop shopping" when it comes to road requirements. Specifically, he said, the new ordinance will contain a method for prioritizing road upgrades, a new procedure for seeking a variance from existing road standards and a general loosening of road requirements on developers.

He also explained that parties seeking a variance will be required to have a pre-hearing meeting with planning and road staff to see if avoiding a variance is possible. Norton said the two offices have "worked diligently" with citizens to accommodate road development.

Changes to the subdivision standards, Holbrooks said, should result in a "slimmed down" version of that document as road requirements are shifted to the new road ordinance.