Judge: Appeals Board has some explaining to do

Judge Lawton McIntosh says, at this time, he lacks sufficient evidence to decide whether the Oconee Board of Zoning Appeals acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it decided to grant an exception to allow a development company to build a Dollar General Store near a 4-way stop intersection.  An order, signed by the judge last week, remands the matter back to the appeals board “to make additional findings of fact and conclusions of law.”  Specifically, the judge wants explanations of why a second parcel met the county’s criteria for a zoning exception and why a first parcel did not.  Within a period of a few months, the board approved a variance for a Dollar General near SC 188 and Ebenezer Road and earlier rejected a variance for the same developer closer to the intersection.  Before McIntosh is a motion to require the board to provide a transcript of the board’s December 10 hearing to Larry Brandt, attorney for neighbors opposed to the Dollar General.