By Jeff Whitten, correspondent.

Conflicting views about what living in Bryan County means were again on display at a local government meeting.

This time it took place at the June 11 meeting of the Bryan County Board of Commissioners, where residents weighed in on a variety of issues – ranging from rezoning matters hitting close to home to concerns over a LGBTQ+ Pride display at the Richmond Hill Library.

And those concerned about the integrity of Georgia elections after 2020 spoke to commissioners.

Perhaps most pressing for those affected was the proposed rezoning to an industrial classification of some 259 acres off Eldora Road at the request of Northpoint Development, which intends to build warehouses on the staff.

After hearing from both sides, and after a recommendation of approval by the county’s community development staff, commissioners voted to approve the rezoning, with some conditions ranging from additional buffers to a traffic study and water and sewer requirements.

The approval came after the Bryan County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the county deny the company’s application to rezone the land from an agricultural designation to industrial following an outcry by area residents, and Eldora Road resident Starr Lee was among those on hand before the County Commission in June to plead her family’s case.

Lee said her family has lived in Bryan County for 200 years and she and her family recently sold one home off Eldora Road to build what she called her dream home on five acres to “get further back and away from the traffic and the noise and everything else,” she said.

“We’re trying to get away from it and feel like it’s following us,” Lee said, adding “I feel like we are being pushed out by people who do not live there and do not understand that road,” as if developers were counting on the fact there were so few residents there they wouldn’t matter to the decision makers.

Lee also told commissioners she learned to swim in the Ogeechee and was afraid of the impacts industrial development near the river was having on the river and its wildlife, a concern later shared by Ogeechee Riverkeeper attorney Ben Kirsch.

“Please don’t rezone this land,” Lee said.

She was followed at the podium by Jim Collins and then Harold Yellen from Thomas & Hutton, the engineering firm which is handling the project for Northpoint and the company which owns the land, Slater Farms LLC.

Collins, an engineer, told commissioners the more than 200 acres of the 455 tract will be left as it is and remain agricultural as a buffer between the warehouse project and the Ogeechee River.

“Where it’s closest to the river its still a third of a mile away from the river, and at one point it’s almost two thirds of a mile to the river,” he said, while noting developers will leave 100 foot buffers of vegetation as well as meet requirements for construction in a 100 year flood plain, where there’s a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year.

He added that while the project is also in a 500 year floodplain, roughly 30 percent of the development around the Interstate Centre and the Hyundai Metaplant is also occurring in a 500 year floodplain.

Like Collins, Yellin told commissioners the project fits in with the county’s comprehensive plan, which was approved in October 2023, An attorney with HunterMacIean, Yellin said the project is exactly where the county’s comprehensive plan says it should be, and “all any property owner can ask for is a predictable result based on an approved plan by this commission.”

He was followed by resident Wayne Carney, who at one point blasted commissioners for getting ready to “rubber stamp another industrial environmental noisy congested traffic 2,000 trucks-a- day nightmare perpetrated on the citizens by our barely elected officials,” he said.

Kirsch followed Carney, telling commissioners the Riverkeepers questioned whether there was even the need for the warehouses, given what he said were rising vacancy rates in the Savannah area as more warehouses were built.

“It’s unclear whether there’s any sort of need for the warehouses,” he said, adding that overbuilding could leave cleared land sitting unused, “destroying this beautiful county.”

Kirsch also addressed the flood plain issue, noting as storms become more frequent and more intense, there is going to be more water and it will have to go somewhere, and that somewhere would be the Ogeechee River.

Jeffrey Williamson, a Pembroke attorney who is manager for the landowners, recounted he was born and raised in Bryan County and a “former chairman of the Ogeechee Riverkeeper,” while telling commissioners the property “was going to be developed one way or the other.”

That led to a partnership with North Point to “do it in the most sustainable and environmentally sound way possible,” Williamson said. “We selected Northpoint because of their track record, their history and their team.

“This land is going to be developed,” he said. “This is the most responsible development we have seen.”

Later, long after commissioners approved rezoning the land off Eldora Road, Old Cuyler Road resident Jason Wilson asked commissioners to consider rezoning all of his neighborhood to an industrial designation to help them and others sell their properties - now impossible to sell as residential properties because they’re overrun by construction of both warehouses and the new interchange on 1-16. “I’m telling you I’m living in a nightmare,” he said, later adding “Our small community that is there now is over with.

“There ain’t but just 20 families that live out there, they grew up out there, its our neighborhood out there, but that’s gone,” he said, noting round the clock construction work and heavy truck traffic on the roads so bad it was dangerous for residents, especially children.

“I tell you what, there are Dads ready to go down and start snatching truckers out of their trucks,” he said.

Wilson told commissioners they had the easy job, making decisions to approve projects.

“It’s easy to say I approve but you need to start looking at neighborhoods, get out in the neighborhoods and start talking to the people,” he said.

He was followed by residents Tom Seaman and Donald Smallwood, updating commissioners on their efforts to combat perceived election fraud and to work with other communities to do likewise.

A “Pride Display” at the Richmond Hill Library then came under fire from some of those who signed up to speak - asking that commissioners get the library to remove the display or make it less visible from the children’s section.

Betsy DeBry was among several who said the library shouldn’t get into politically divisive issues and urged that the county work with the library board and librarians to come up with a policy.

Commissioner Dallas Daniels of District 4 told those speaking out that the commission was neutral on such matters but reminded them they could volunteer with the county to serve on boards.