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Jessica Nelms

Pastoral settings such as this exist throughout Oconee County, and all could be protected for future generations through the use of zoning.

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Jessica Nelms

Gary L. McMahan, of West Union, was among the first to file a rezoning application with the Oconee County Planning Department. More than 70 percent of McMahan's neighbors, including property owners who live away from the community, are requesting to be rezoned as an Agricultural District, which they believe would be the least restrictive form of zoning for them.

Photo

Click on photo to enlarge

Jessica Nelms

Gary L. McMahan, of West Union, was among the first to file a rezoning application with the Oconee County Planning Department. More than 70 percent of McMahan's neighbors, including property owners who live away from the community, are requesting to be rezoned as an Agricultural District, which they believe would be the least restrictive form of zoning for them.

WALHALLA — Gary McMahan says he and his brother, Louis, had very little interest in zoning or being zoned.

The brothers own a 15-acre farm on Ebenezer Road between Fairview Southern Methodist Church and Fairview Church of God on property their family has owned for more than 100 years.

However, when it became evident that Oconee County would enact a Zoning Enabling Ordinance (ZEO), the McMahans moved quickly to use the means allowed by the new law to protect their way of life.

“In our community we have farming and open land,” Gary McMahan says. “We were interested in having the less restricted form (of regulation) available to us.”

The McMahans were among the first Oconee County residents to submit a rezoning application to the Oconee County Planning Department once the ZEO was approved Nov. 6, 2008. They reached out to their neighbors and signed a petition to have just over 325 acres in their community designated as an Agricultural District.

The McMahans went to their neighbors and contacted outside property owners by mail. Of 61 signatures collected, 48 said they wanted an Agricultural District. That’s well above the 51 percent needed by the new law to have rezoning.

“As a matter of fact, we were contacted by people who asked to join in with us when they saw what we wanted to do and brought more parcels than we originally thought,” Gary McMahan says.

The push to have land-use regulations in Oconee gained momentum early in 2007.

Zoning was identified in different surveys and among focus groups as being vital to the county’s future development. There was a consensus that land-use regulations would help protect Oconee’s beautiful lakes and other resources from unchecked high-density and high-rise development.

A key component of the ZEO is the carving of a special Lake Overlay District with a setback of 750 feet. Although supporters wanted a 1,300-foot boundary around the Lake Overlay District, they nonetheless recognized that at long last Oconee had land-use regulations.

Zoning supporters also embraced a 65-foot height restriction on development around the lakes and the requirement of a 25-foot vegetative buffer on new construction.

In the coming weeks, county officials will begin looking at about 32 rezoning applications filed with the Planning Department.

For his part, Gary McMahan says he and his family and neighbors will work within the new law to protect their way of life.

“We were generally not interested in being zoned,” he said. “But when zoning became a reality, we collectively chose to select the least restrictive form of zoning. We anticipate this will be accepted by the county.”