Dollar General approval appealed

Dissatisfied home owners have gone to court to try to reverse an Oconee County decision to allow a Dollar General store near Lake Keowee.  Home owners packed an April meeting of the county Board of Zoning Appeals to oppose a special exception to allow a 9,100 square foot store near the 4-way stop intersection of Ebenezer Road and SC 188/the Keowee School Road.  Several of them have retained the services of Walhalla attorney Larry Brandt, who filed the appeal apparently within days of a deadline.  The petition appealing the board of zoning appeal’s decision to grant a special exception to the county zoning law and the lake overlay provisions contained within the law.  Board approval April 25 was conditional, based on the developer making good on assurances that were to be spelled out in the official order.  Three acres, owned by Lewis McMahan next door to Yupper’s store and restaurant on the Ebenezer Road, were proposed by Patton Development for the store.  The special exception was required because the traditional rural zoning in place there forbids any retail establishment of more than five thousand square feet.  The county’s planning and zoning staff had recommended approval, but most of those in the large audience left disappointed.  And residents of Sunset Bay subdivision filled two rows on one side of the meeting.  The appeal, filed in the Court of Common Pleas May 24, lays out 23 grounds to reverse the board’s action.  Those grounds include “no evidence as to the affect the project would have upon water quality of Lake Keowee” and there was “no adequate evidence that the project will have a positive impact on the neighborhood and adjoining property.”