Applicant withdraws rezoning request

ALBANY — The ongoing saga of the Harris Road rezoning request officially ended — at least for now — Monday when the Dougherty County Commission voted at its business meeting to accept a withdrawal of application notice from the applicant’s daughter.

The County Commission was asked at its Dec. 14 meeting to consider a request to rezone 10 acres of land at 4016 Harris Road from agriculture to mobile home single-family residential so that property owner Veola Cook could maintain her mobile home residence on the property and eventually construct a stick-built house there, where her daughter would live.

Commissioners tabled the matter over concern that Cook might not be aware that if the rezoning request were approved, she would not be able to return the property to AG zoning at a later date because of the lot size. When Cook became ill while visiting family members out of state, the request was left hanging in limbo while a 70-day window for commission action passed.

When contacted by city/county Planning Manager Mary Teter about the approaching deadline for county action, Cook’s daughter, Brenda Tift, sent a letter withdrawing the rezoning application. The commission voted 7-0 Monday to accept that request.

“Mary Teter and Commissioner (Anthony) Jones have put in a lot of work with this family on the proposal,” County Attorney Spencer Lee told the board. “I believe it would be appropriate that we take this action on their request now.”

Also at the meeting, commissioners voted to revise the county’s volunteer board recognition policy and identified rehabilitation as the eligible activity for use of federal Community HOME Investment Program funding in the county.

Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas took a moment to praise commissioners at the start of the meeting, saying, “I wanted to thank these commissioners for the hard work they put into this weekend’s retreat while doing this community’s work. I want it on the record that they put in a lot of hard work while spending time away from their families and friends.”

Cohilas said one of the issues discussed at the retreat, which was held at Veterans Park in Crisp County, was a call to readdress consolidation of the city and county governments. Cohilas said he expects the commission to start that discussion soon.

At the end of the meeting, the chairman announced that the Southside Library branch, closed four years ago as a cost-saving measure, would have a “soft opening” Feb. 25 and a grand opening Feb. 27. The reopening will return the system to its full contingent of five operating branches.