Harris County Commissioners Vote on New Unified Development Code

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) – It’s back to the drawing board for a controversial land ordinance bill in Harris County. The commissioners rejected it last week, but in a surprise twist it is back on the table.

On August 2, Harris County residents filled the room to tell the Board of Commissioners exactly what they thought of the proposed Unified Development Code.

A 3-2 vote was cast, and it was with a clear understanding that he would be left alone. After the agenda was posted on the web with a line announcing a general discussion regarding the UDC, it raised concerns among some Harris County residents.

“I think it is necessary to talk about it. I asked them one of the things that I asked is that they wait to do nothing at the moment, not to approve it, so the discussion is good, but next year may well not be right away,” said Mark Lawrence, pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church.

It was reported to the county manager that some of the commissioners wanted to reinstate the UDC. A meeting for August 9 was already scheduled and the county manager was able to add it to the agenda.

Allow commissioners to vote on whether or not they will restart the process or add changes to the current UDC.

“So it has to go through a series of legal processes, and the board wanted some members of the board to want this timeline on what process it would take for this document to go through the legal process, I believe, for the third or fourth time said County Executive Randy Dowling.

News Leader 9 spoke to Susan Andrews, District 5 Commissioner who voted for the new UDC proposal, and she says that after spending a very large amount of money preparing the new UDC and only having a few disagreements with the new proposal, shouldn’t it be wasted.

“Why would we throw away all the things we went through, all the things we heard from citizens before this public meeting and just throw it all away so we reconsidered and we want to listen to what they said to come together again talk again to see if there are things we can change so that we don’t waste these two years of work,” Andrews added.

The next meeting will be at the Harris County Library at 4:30 p.m. It is open to the public, but people will not be able to comment during this meeting.

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