The Bartow County Planning Commission held their monthly meeting last night, September 23, 2024 at 6:00 PM.
Concerned citizens showed up in force to speak out against a handful of developments throughout Bartow. The meeting room was full with standing room only in the foyer outside the room and beyond.
The 144 Hwy 20 Spur development drew the largest crowd with an estimated 140 citizens showing up in red shirts. There were so many speakers that the board kindly approved a motion to extend the speaking time from 30 minutes to 60 minutes.
The board unanimously denied the rezoning request.
Another townhome development at Gaines Road and Spring Place Road rezoning request was denied by the Planning Commission as well. This was old business that had previously been tabled.
Several citizens showed up to speak against this request as well.
A rezoning request was approved for a smaller townhome development at 700 Brown Farm Road. A small number of people spoke against this request. The developer agreed to adding a privacy fence at the request of one speaker.
The general public consensus last night was infrastructure is not in place to handle the developments already approved, much less even more.
There were two other developments left to be heard when we departed the premises so the people who had been waiting outside for hours could get inside to hear their cases. The final two were 833 Hwy 293 which passed easily as this is the old junkyard south of LakePoint and I believe it was becoming a storage facility or something similar.
Last was 506 Burnt Hickory Road. Unfortunately we do not have the outcome of this development but there was a large crowd there late last night for this hearing.