GREENE COUNTY
The Greene County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to halt the expansion of Lake Oconee Estates & Beach Club.
In 2024, the BOC approved a zoning request from A1 to PUD for a 264-acre property near Veazey Connector, allowing the creation of 365 lots for the development.
During Tuesday’s meeting, development attorney Jay Dell requested another zoning change from A1 to PUD for 191.3 acres located at Leslie Mill Road and Veazey Connector. The conceptual site plan for the second request included an additional 325 single-family homes for the development, ranging from 1,200 to 2,000 square feet and targeting the 55-plus community.
“If approved, the [proposed PUD] would be annexed into the existing PUD,” read county documents. “This would increase the total lot count within the overall PUD to 690 with a proposed density of 1.5 units per acre and 30.57% proposed open space.”
Dell said the additional lots would be similar to the previously approved lots and wouldn’t have a significant impact on school enrollment, traffic, or the environment. He stressed developers’ willingness to comply with guidelines regarding stormwater and erosion control and their plan to pay for water and sewer service from Piedmont Water.
According to Dell, the request would support the commissioners’ desire for residential development in the area, acknowledging Veazey Connector is marked for residential growth in the 2023 comprehensive plan and several area developments have been approved since 2015.
“For the past nine years, this board, through its actions, has indicated that this area should be residential. We’re only trying to comply with that indication,” he said.
Nearly a dozen residents spoke out against the development’s expansion.
Alli Puglisi questioned the legitimacy of the comprehensive plan, noting the plan had little public input, and argued the development isn’t compatible with the rural, low-density character of the Veazey Connector.
“Out of the more than 20,700 [county] residents, fewer than 50 attended the public workshop. That’s 0.2% of our population,” Puglisi said. “Only 308 people filled out the survey, meaning 98.5% of the county had no voice in shaping this plan. The county claims it did outreach, but no one I know heard about it. This was the bare legal minimum, not meaningful public engagement. Worse, the input that was collected during the 2023 planning process directly contradicts this rezoning. Residents asked for protection of rural character, environmental preservation, and more control over growth. Those are the top themes and the appendices of the plan, yet they’re being ignored. The people who did participate are being disregarded just like the rest of us.
“The second rezoning seems to be pushing forward despite the fact that many residents didn’t even know about the first one,” Puglisi continued. “The developer has been trying to buy surrounding properties for years, sometimes offering below market value and laying the groundwork for this project long before the public had a chance to [oppose]. [This development] lacks firm infrastructure plans and will harm neighboring properties by reducing values, increasing stormwater runoff, and disrupting wetlands. This is a classic example of keyhole development with dense housing shoehorned into rural areas through a single narrow access point via Veazey Connector.”
Puglisi said she created a petition opposing the development that received 440 signatures — more responses than the comprehensive plan survey received.
“If this rezoning is approved, we will not accept it quietly,” Puglisi said. “We’ll pursue every legal, procedural, and political avenue available to halt and reverse this process because the community deserves a voice. You were not elected to serve developers; you were elected to protect the people who live here. Please vote no on this rezoning and enact a building moratorium and start with a new, inclusive comprehensive plan that reflects the will of Greene County residents.”
Puglisi and other residents emphasized potential impacts on traffic, public safety services, noise pollution, and wildlife.
“The wildlife will not have anywhere to go. The wildlife is going to be in Veazey Connector getting hit,” Shane Lee said. “The other day, I was turkey-hunting in my backyard. Peaceful, quiet. Heard the stream running, heard the birds chirping, and I sat thinking, ‘This is going to be over.’ There’s going to be 2,000 people directly across the street with their lawnmowers, with all of this noise, and all this development, and that’s not what we came here for. “We don’t want this to be another Rockdale, we don’t want this to be another Gwinnett, and we don’t want this to be another Walton County.
"We want this to be Greene County. This is where we live and where we love to live, and it’s where we want to continue to live in peace without piled-on development for no other reason than for somebody to make a quick buck.”
Some residents noted concerns with runoff pollution, saying runoff from the proposed property and existing area developments has eroded into streams. Residents explained how pesticide and fertilizer runoff could lead to fish deaths and chemical poisoning or disease in humans.
South Florida transplant Bill Oehme shared his experience there and what he sees happening to the Lake Oconee ecosystem.
“I moved the heck out of South Florida because it got to the point where they built on everything,” he said. “We have a lake here, and this lake is great because there’s low density. You start bringing all these people in, and you’re going to have problems, and you’re going to have pollution, and you’re not going to have the asset that you once had. I watched it happen in South Florida. I watched the runoff and the algae blooms and the fish kills and everything else. By that time, the developers who’ve made all their money are long gone. How many of those developers are going to be living here in this area after they do everything they’re going to do? Zero. They’re going to be onto their next conquest.
“You’re going to ruin the lake,” Oehme continued. “These developers don’t give a crap about this area. They all come in and they just make a mess of it, and then they move on … Get the density down, and don’t let these guys come in and bully you and threaten you with lawsuits and all this other crap ‘cause that’s not what the citizens want. The citizens wants you guys to defend us from the crap that’s coming into this town.”
In his rebuttal, Dell said erosion isn’t coming from Lake Oconee Estates.
“We haven’t touched this land, so any erosion hasn’t come from us,” he explained. “There’s been nothing on this land. We will comply with all state, federal, and local requirements, and if not, Chuck [Wooley] will find us and we will clean it up.”
Dell also asked the commissioners to follow the comprehensive plan.
“We have a plan for the growth of Greene County,” he said. “Whether these people participated in the plan or not, the plan was adopted and approved, and that plan has certain areas of the county that are targeted for residential development. This is one of them … We have a plan, we are complying with that plan so that we won’t turn it into Rockdale County, we won’t turn it into Lawrenceville. There will be areas of development, there will be controlled development, and there will be areas that stay rural.”
Chairman Gary Usry made a motion to approve the request, saying the request meets land use criteria and wouldn’t create spot zoning. His motion failed without a second. District 2 Commissioner Jeffery Smith next made a motion to deny the request, which District 1 Commissioner Angela Deering seconded.
Smith’s motion passed 4-1 with Usry casting the dissenting vote.