Columbia County’s Planning Commission approved of storage unit site plans back in February. It’s located at the entrance of the Heritage Hill subdivision on Columbia Road.
Homeowners are upset. They say they don’t want their property destroyed.
Planning Commission Chair, Jim Cox, says, “they’re approved to build this as it stands now.”
One homeowner, Jack Anderson, has lived in Heritage Hill for 20 years. He lives right next to the zoned area.
“I don’t care how it will look, it will be out of place,” says Anderson. “It will damage the water system, and being that we occasionally go through droughts,” he says, “I think any threat to the water system or the water table here in the area is a major threat.”
The storage unit company was approved by commission to build back in February, but they’re asking for more land.
“There’s a retention pond here. This way you can engineer it and manage the runoff,” says Cox.
It isn’t just about the environment for Jack. He insists County Officials look at the records. He says the subdivision has a high number of accidents at the entrance.
“There is only one entrance to the subdivision up front there and that would definitely mess up the flow of things,” says Anderson. “The school bus route, I can only imagine the broad effect, the negative effect that it will have on the neighborhood.”
Cox says growth is happening, and it’s happening fast.
“The funding for roads is years behind the growth,” says Cox, “I don’t think we could raise taxes enough to spend money to run four and five lane highways to every corner in the county.”
The Planning Commission tabled the decision to move forward on more land. They want to see the full design in writing. If the extra land and design is approved at the Planning Commission, it will head to the Commission for the final approval.
