The Macon County Planning Board will take up the third of three proposed watershed and floodplain changes on Thursday, Nov. 7, but with the meeting at a new location.
Macon County Planner Caleb Gibson said due to FEMA utilizing the meeting room at the Health Department, the meeting will be held at the Robert Carpenter Community Building, located at 1288 Georgia Road, starting at 5 p.m.
The Planning Board will consider proposed changes to the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance. The proposal is to allow outside fill up to 25% per floodplain acre.
This comes a month after the Planning Board voted 4-3 to recommend changing the Macon County Watershed Protection Ordinance to allow recreational vehicle parks or subdivision owners to receive Special Nonresidential Intensity Allocations in specific county watersheds. That motion also included a request to “review and fully strengthen RV park permitting so septic systems meet or exceed any commercial or residential requirements.”
This Thursday’s meeting will be another chapter in the process of reviewing ordinances that many say would harm Macon County’s aquatic life and farmlands.
In August, the Macon County Board of Commissioners approved changes to the Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Ordinance that changed the minimum tract size to mandate an erosion and sediment control plan from half an acre to a full acre. While not required per the ordinance, the soil erosion and sedimentation control change did not receive any recommendation one way or another from the Planning Board prior to the commissioners’ approval.
The commissioners held hearings on all three proposed changes in July following a recommendation by a liaison committee of commissioners and Planning Board members that met once to make sure the changes followed state minimum requirements. The commissioners seemed ready to decide on the Watershed and Flood Damage Prevention Ordinances in September and October, but a request to have the Planning Board review both ordinances first was obliged.
Commissioner Josh Young has pushed the changes, saying they will help local landowners have more freedom to make decisions. Others pointed out how these ordinances caused issues for potential developers and say enforcement is sparse.
The trio of land use changes have received heavy pushback from the community, especially the floodplain fill. In August a Water Quality Advisory Committee was formed at the request of Commissioners Chair Gary Shields. The purpose of the committee, chaired by aquatic conservationist Bill McLarney, is to provide technical information and make recommendations related to the proposed changes.
The committee’s report strongly advises against the changes, saying 25% has no context, would make enforcement difficult, lead to loss of farmland, exacerbate flooding and erosion issues and lead to increased costs to the taxpayers.
Over the last several months, when one or more of the proposed three changes have been on the agenda, multiple community members spoke against it. Few have spoken in favor.
The commissioners are set to consider the Watershed Protection Ordinance changes and Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance changes in January. The Planning Board’s recommendation doesn’t necessarily impact the commissioners’ decisions.
Planning Board member Barry Breeden is running unopposed for a Macon County Board of Commissioners seat and barring anything unforeseen, will be sworn in December, meaning he could vote to recommend or not recommend the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance on Thursday, then vote in January to approve or not approve the same changes. Breeden voted to recommend the Watershed Protection Ordinance changes in October.