County planners approve new zoning procedures

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — The Forsyth County Planning Commission recommended approval of a slew of changes to the county’s Unified Development Code that will affect home occupation permits, mobile vending permits and variances.

County Attorney Ken Jarrard told commissioners at the Feb. 28 meeting that the modifications follow a new state law which changed state zoning procedures.

While the law took effect July 1, 2022, Jarrard said it becomes enforceable this July and will conflict with the county’s existing zoning procedures.

Jarrard said the new law divided county zoning decisions into two buckets.

Processes for making traditional zoning decisions, condition amendments and conditional use permits remain the same, he said. But, the law introduces a quasijudicial administrative procedure to a host of other zoning-related decisions.

“With respect to your traditional zoning enactments, they’ll stay the same, rezoning, zoning condition amendments, [conditional use permits], and then the law does something sort of curious,” Jarrard said. “It says that even variances and conditions that run [contiguous] with rezonings and [conditional use permits] also have the flavor of zoning, so they would continue to abide by that 15 to 45-day protocol.”

Jarrard said right now, the county is required to publish a public hearing on zoning cases notice no sooner than 45 days, but no later than 15 days before the hearing. Zoning decisions defined as quasi-judicial have 30 days under the new law to give notice of public hearings.

He said these quasi-judicial enactments include home occupation permits, mobile vending permits, sketch plats, variances, appeals of administrative decisions and appeals of the Zoning Board of Appeals decisions. These will adopt the new notice protocol, but also must abide by the new law’s adjudication standards.

“There's also a new requirement that we have to literally mail a copy or a letter to the affected property owner within that same 30-day window,” Jarrard said. “So, it is a different procedural protocol.”

Jarrard said he and county leaders considered unifying all zoning notices to adopt the 30-day window, but the County Commission opted to keep the 15 to 45day notice window for traditional zoning decisions.

The commission also recommended approval of modifications for lot size variances that place a cap of 10 percent of the total lot size in any district except those that share a border with Lake Lanier, where lots would have a 25 percent size limitation. Commissioners approved a third modification that clarifies the definition of corner lots and removes the requirement of a conditional use permit to exceed building height limits.

The modifications will have a second public hearing at the March 16 Board of Commissioners meeting.

Detached apartment debated

Four residents of the Cains Cove subdivision told commissioners they opposed a zoning request for a detached apartment on the property of a home on Cains Cove Road. More than 10 residents of the neighborhood attended the meeting to voice opposition.

Stacey Rainwater presented the request to add a 1,362-square foot accessory structure on the property on behalf of the homeowners. Rainwater said the homeowners intend to use the structure as a guest house or residence for an inhome caregiver, rather than rent out the apartment.

However, some residents said they doubted the homeowners’ purpose for the structure, and they argued the apartment goes against the appearance and atmosphere of the subdivision.

Mark Rykowski said most residents moved to the neighborhood because it was small and had single-family homes, and the detached apartment would set a precedent that would ruin the singlefamily environment.

“You know, this building is 1,300 square feet,” Rykowski said. “That is more than probably a lot of the homes that were originally zoned for the property, so to basically have two homes sitting on a single property line with increased traffic, increased personnel up there, I just think it is a detriment to the environment that all of us have lived in.”

Barbara Davidson said she was concerned about parking on the small road, sewage requirements for an additional structure and the potential decreases in the value of homes in the neighborhood.

“It would destroy our community,” Davidson said.

Commissioner Adrian Flack, in whose district the property is located, said he thinks the request is permissible, but he does not agree with the applicants’ reasoning for the request. He said there is still square footage available in the home, and the topography challenges Rainwater cited are not extraordinary.

“The balancing act that we always have here is the property rights versus the rights of the community, the individual’s property rights versus what the community wants to happen with this,” Flack said.

The commission voted 3-2 to recommend approval of the request with the condition that the apartment does not exceed 1,000 square feet. Commissioners Tim Dineen and Nedal Shawkat cast the dissenting votes.

The Board of Commissioners will vote on the request at its March 16 public hearing.

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