Bryan County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a moratorium on rezoning land in the fast-growing Northern Bryan Industrial Area. It will last through the end of the year.

The measure, which won’t impact rezoning requests in the area already being considered by the county, was requested by county staffers, according to Community Development Director Audra Miller.

“The purpose of the moratorium is to allow staff and the county to address infrastructure on the north end,” she told commissioners. “As everyone is well aware, there is a lot of development going on in the north end and staff, the consultants and the county need a little bit of a pause.”

The area is in a corridor generally running along and emanating outwards from highways 80 and 280 and the I-16 interchange in Black Creek, where fields are rapidly giving way to warehouses.

Miller said the pause will the county “time to analyze water and sewer, both from an infrastructure and capacity standpoint and also our transportation network. Such improvements require a lot of planning and a lot of capital investment and we are struggling to keep up with the pace of development.”

While South Bryan has experienced booming residential growth for decades now, North Bryan has remained more rural.

But both the growth of the Savannah port, which has led to a proliferation of warehouses and manufacturing in Blitchton and Black Creek, and Hyundai Motor Group America’s decision to build the company’s Metaplant America at the 3,000-acre Mega-Site just off I-16, has sparked an explosion of growth in the area.

That’s led a number of property owners to seek to rezone their land from an agricultural designation to an industrial one. There are 11 such rezoning requests currently pending, Miller said, none of which will be impacted by the moratorium. She told commissioners the request to put a pause on rezoning requests in the area wasn’t made lightly.

“We know how important development is to a community,” Miller said. “A lot of people have said how blessed we are to have this development and that we are a growing community. We also need to develop in a thoughtful and pragmatic matter.”

Shortly after commissioners approved a motion by District 1 Commissioner Noah Covington to adopt the moratorium, non-public hearings were held on a pair of rezoning requests to change from A-5 to I-2, covering more than 420 acres of land in the area for more than 2 million square foot in warehouse space.

Public hearings on those will be held later this month.