BRYAN COUNTY – Bryan County commissioners voted, 4-1, to approve a request to rezone roughly 39 acres near a historic cemetery for commercial use on Tuesday, despite opposition from a standing-room-only crowd.
The commission approved the rezoning with eight conditions recommended by county planning and zoning staff, including measures intended to protect the cemetery and address future traffic and infrastructure needs, during its August meeting. District 1 Commissioner Alex Floyd made the motion to approve the request with staff recommendations. District 4 Commissioner Patrick Kisgen voted against the motion and had previously made a motion to deny the request.
The property, near the Belfast River Road and Highway 144 roundabout, is being targeted for commercial development by Cape Group LLC, a Charlotte-based grocery-store-anchored commercial developer. Cape is under contract to purchase about 21 acres of the roughly 39-acre tract, while the current owner would retain the remainder.
According to county planning staff, the applicant's preliminary concept calls for a commercial development totaling about 168,000 square feet, including outparcels. The plan estimates nearly 15,000 daily vehicle trips, counting both traffic entering and leaving the development.
The rezoning has faced opposition from nearby residents because of the property’s proximity to the historic Burnt Church Cemetery, one of Richmond Hill’s oldest cemeteries. This cemetery was established in 1830 alongside the Bryan Neck Presbyterian Church, the oldest organized congregation in Bryan County. The church burned in 1882, but the cemetery remains.
Multiple public commenters who spoke during the meeting said they had family members buried at the cemetery and worried about having a commercial development so close by.
“I understand very much the difficulty in this decision in that you have to deal with the desires of the public but you also have to decide upon … property rights,” Brice Ladson, a Bryan County resident, said. “But the Burnt Church Cemetery… is hallowed ground, and it must be preserved as such in this everchanging world.”
County planning staff recommended approval because the property falls within the county's suburban/village center character area, where highway commercial uses are contemplated to serve surrounding residential and mixed-use development. However, planning staff recommended approval with eight conditions:
Key conditions require maintaining a 50-foot undisturbed buffer around Burt Church Cemetery, completing an updated traffic impact analysis for each development phase, and constructing a bypass lane or other approved mitigation if traffic conditions exceed the specified threshold.
The developer must provide a preliminary bypass-lane alignment, dedicate specified right-of-way along Belfast River at no cost to the County, and comply with additional right-of-way requirements if the identified property is not purchased. The development must also connect to County water and sewer, with individual septic systems prohibited, and the sewer connection must be through either the existing gravity system or a lift station, subject to County approval before land-disturbance permits are issued.
Attorney John Northrup, an attorney with Savannah-based firm Bouhan Falligant, representing the applicant, said the rezoning fits the county's comprehensive plan and would provide commercial services to an area experiencing substantial residential growth.
Northrup said residents currently have to travel about 2 miles to reach significant commercial development and argued the county's future land-use map anticipated commercial development in the area.
He also pointed to the cemetery as a reason the proposed plan should be viewed differently from previous development proposals, saying Cape's plan would maintain a 50-foot wooded buffer and would not place an access road north of the cemetery – a commitment much greater than previous development proposals.
Residents who opposed the rezoning questioned whether B-2 zoning was too broad and whether the preliminary development plan provides enough certainty about what ultimately could be built.
Phil Corbin, a representative of Richmond Hill Presbyterian Church, said the preliminary plan includes a grocery store, medical facility and retail space but could change, and argued that if the property is rezoned it should instead receive B-1 zoning. Corbin and his group with the church have been showing up to meetings for months to oppose the rezoning.
“It seems like their map changes every time I look at it,” he said. “If they get a B2 development zoning, they can put just about anything they want to put there.”
Benjamin Matthews said the proposed development was overly ambitious given the area's existing infrastructure and called for greater scrutiny of its potential impacts on traffic, aesthetics and the surrounding community.
He owns a nearby property and said he’s already experienced flooding issues on his property after rain events, an issue that would be exacerbated by more development.
Northrup said the developer intends to use detention ponds and work with county stormwater officials to prevent runoff from reaching the cemetery. The current site plan remains conceptual and final civil engineering plans have not yet been completed.
The rezoning had been considered at multiple public hearings before Tuesday's vote. In July the Bryan County Planning and Zoning Board recommended that the rezoning request be denied.
Now, the prospective buyers of the property can either choose to abide with the Planning and Zoning staff recommendations or back out of the contract.