Stephens Co. Commission To Meet Today

Stephens County Commissioners will consider adopting proposed changes to the county’s nuisance ordinance at their meeting this morning.

The county commission will meet at 8:30 a.m. today in the second-floor courtroom of the historic Stephens County Courthouse in downtown Toccoa.

Leading the agenda is a second public hearing on the proposed nuisance ordinance changes.

According to Stephens County Attorney Brian Ranck, Stephens County is proposing to eliminate some county guidelines from the current ordinance in the agricultural area.

Ranck said it basically eliminates what were spelled out distances where animals or fowl could be kept from occupied dwellings and it also eliminates some minimum floor area or square footage requirements.

He said the change is to remove the county guidelines and refer to state and federal law for any guidelines that may exist.

This issue came up after concerns were raised about these guidelines and how strict they were during discussions surrounding other, unrelated changes that were made to the nuisance ordinance earlier this year.

A first public hearing was held on the proposed changes last month.

During that hearing, local resident Bryan Dooley said he has concerns about the proposed change, noting that the state and federal law has no guidelines in this area, so completely removing the county guidelines could create potential problems.

Dooley said that these proposed changes go too far and the county needs to find a middle ground somewhere.

Following the nuisance ordinance public hearing and public hearings on requested rezoning, variance, and conditional use requests, commissioners will move into the work session to discuss agenda items.

The business meeting to vote on agenda items will follow the work session.

Today’s 8:30 a.m. Stephens County Commission meeting is open to the public.