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Rezoning petition approved, special conditions placed on development
Rezoning approved at city council  meeting.
Nine modular units sit on property recently rezoned office institutional by the city of Hinesville. The property owners plan to connect the units and divide them for use as office suites, pending approval of a site plan. - photo by Denise Etheridge

About three dozen people attended Thursday’s Hinesville city council meeting to hear a decision on a rezoning petition. The request was approved with special conditions.

Council re-visited the previously tabled rezoning petition property owner Pete Dan Clark submitted. He asked to rezone .69 acres from an R-3 (single family dwelling district) to O-I (office institutional district) to match an adjacent plot of land that is currently O-I. 

The site plan details construction of a 10,000 square-foot building with nine modular units purchased and relocated to the property from Hunter Army Airfield.

The Liberty Consolidated Planning Commission approved the initial request on condition. They required a 6-foot privacy fence and 15-foot shrubbery buffer be placed between the potential site and homes located directly behind the property.

Gabriele Hartage, zoning administrator for LCPC, updated council members on the petition.

Council then turned to the city manager for advice. “I recommend a traffic study for the community area,” City Manager Ken Howard said. “Prior to any approval of the site plan, there needs to be a traffic study, conducted by a registered traffic engineer.”

Last week, District 1 Council Member Diana Reid held a town hall for residents to voice their concerns. Residents wanted to be reassured about traffic safety in the busy corridor, both Reid and Howard said.

“Since last week’s meeting, we’ve had additional meetings,” Mayor Allen Brown said. “We’ve had a lot of discussion, and want to know where we’re going and where we’re headed.”

“Essentially, what I gathered from the meetings, there are numerous concerns in reference to safety of the development and the adjacent communities,” Howard said. 

Reid motioned to approve the rezoning request with special conditions. 

The developer must provide a limited traffic impact study, prepared by a registered traffic engineer, prior to site plan approval, she said. Secondly, transportation improvements needed for the site must be included in development and with the approval of the site plan by LCPC and city council, Reid concluded.

The motion passed unanimously.

Council Member Vicky Nelson’s request for the use of four polycarts for her city-sponsored event next week was approved.

 The event is a Back-to-School Community Festival at Full Gospel Tabernacle COGIC, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday, July 28. 

“Our goal is to give out 600 book bags filled with supplies,” Nelson said. “Everyone come out for some food, music and a lot of fun.”

The city council met in executive session to discuss real estate and personnel matters. 

After re-entering open session, city offiicials named a new assistant city manager, Ryan Arnold. Arnold comes from Forsyth County, where he is the current budget manager, Howard said.

“I look forward to bringing him on board,” he said. “There’s great things ahead for the city of Hinesville.”


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