Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current, August 02, 2023, Image 2

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Jackson herald., August 02, 2023, Image 2

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 2A THE JACKSON HERALD WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2023 Commerce loosens proposed backyard chicken rules By Alex Buffington alex@mainstreetnews.com Commerce is changing its proposed ordinance on back yard chickens, removing some of the more controversial ele ments of the initial proposal. The Commerce City Coun cil and the town’s planning and zoning commission met in a combined meeting on July 24 to go over the ordinance over haul. The planning and zoning commission worked on the overhaul for months, before sending it to the council. From there, the council held months- long discussions on the pro posal and had several changes it wanted to make. The July 24 meeting was held to address those changes, along with de tails that were left up-in-the-air. One of those was backyard chickens. Both groups seemed to agree that they want to limit the number of chickens to 6 per household and that residents cannot sell the eggs. Roosters and some other animals (os triches, peafowl, etc.) will not be allowed. Chickens won’t be able to free range. But there were a couple de tails that the groups opted to change. First, there was a require ment that the chicken coop match the existing residence. The former planning and zoning administrator said pre viously that if a house were constructed of brick and wood, the coop would need to be con structed of brick and wood. That won’t be the case. The city is opting for less restric tive rales on the coop’s design (adopting something similar to the city’s requirements for fencing materials). “Just have them build a qual ity coop,” said council member Darren Owensby. The city also won’t be re quiring that chickens be regis tered or that a $150 fee paid. Several members in the group noted you don’t have to pay a fee to own a dog. “That was the point of staff bringing it up to say we don’t do it for dogs, why are doing it for chickens,” assistant city manager Matt Hailey said. The city could have a public hearing on the proposed ordi nance overhaul at its Septem ber work session with plans to adopt the ordinance at its Sep tember voting session. OTHER ITEMS DISCUSSED Other items discussed in cluded: •beefing up the street design standards to help alleviate side walk parking in subdivisions. The groups discussed widen ing the road requirements or having parking pockets in sub divisions for guests. •requiring 5-foot setbacks for accessory structures and 10-foot setbacks for accessory dwelling units. •prohibiting portable met al carports. The groups had a lengthy conversation on those carports, which are prevalent in the area. They discussed requiring that carports be con structed on a foundation and be permanently anchored. The city’s current code requires that carports match the existing res idence, so most metal carports aren’t allowed currently. •chain link fencing. The council previously discussed allowing coated chain link fence in the front yard, but the two groups decided to opt against that. Chain link fenc es will still be allowed in the back yard, and won’t need to be coated. Staff members also plan to look at requirements for driveway gates. •clarifying the distance re quired between fuel pumps, tanks and storage from residen tial properties. •adopting new state rules on allowing the replacement of certain mobile homes/manu factured homes. •increasing the setbacks for outdoor dining seating in com mercial areas (from 2-feet to 6-feet) for American Disability Act (ADA) compliance. The ordinance also limits outdoor restaurant dining to 10 p.m. and requires a perimeter around the seating area. •allowing administrative variances so that staff can ap prove minor variances without the request coming before the planning commission or coun cil. The groups agreed to allow administrative variances on a limited scope with multiple staff members’ review. •requiring that developers turn over the homeowners association to residents if a certain percentage of homes have been constructed and the subdivision isn’t built out with in a certain number of years (5 years was discussed at the meeting). The groups agreed to go with legal counsel’s sugges tion for the details. •increasing requirements for silt fencing for large develop ments (subdivisions, commer cial and industrial), requiring two rows of higher-grade silt fencing. The city has had is sues with erosion and runoff at some of the developments in the city. The groups also discussed the city’s tree ordi nance, which should prohibit clear-cutting and will help with that erosion problem. •establishing and enforcing quality design standards and a new design review permit re quirement. Alma Farms’ final plat approved in Hoschton Hoschton leaders have ap proved the final plat for the Alma Farms subdivision — formerly known as Nunley Farms — after postponing the decision during their regular July meeting. The city council voted 4-0 in a called meeting Thursday (July 27) to OK the final plat for the 55-home development at 300 Peachtree Rd. The city council had de layed its vote to look further into the circumstances around the subdivision’s 2021 ap proval after residents raised questions during the council’s July 13 work session. Those questions included those about a code change allow ing the developer to provide just one entrance and exit, in stead of two, for a subdivision of more than 50 homes and public hearings regarding the change. The council approved the final plat Thursday without discussion, other than the final plat approval having no condi tions. City planner Jerry Weitz later clarified for residents attending the meeting that all conditions of zoning approval are still in force. Qualifying continued from lA resignation prompted the spe cial election). The qualifying fee for the school board dis trict will be $72. The last day a person may register and be eligible to vote in the General Election will be October 10. Regis tration forms are available at Commerce City Hall. HOSCHTON The City of Hoschton has announced qualifying for Nov. 7 special elections to fill its mayoral vacancy and an empty council seat — both of which have terms that won’t expire until 2026. Special election qualifying will run from Aug. 7 at 8 a.m. to Aug. 9 at 4:30 p.m. The qualifying fee for mayor is $360, and the coun cil seat is $180. Those inter ested in running for mayor or the city council post can pick up a qualifying packet at city hall during qualifying times. Former Mayor Lauren O’Leary resigned on July 5 due to a family move away from Hoschton, while for mer councilman Scott Mims stepped down in March, cit ing family and professional reasons. In addition to those spe cial elections, the city will have standard elections in November for three other seats whose terms expire in 2024, giving Hoschton five council races. Up for grabs in those races are the seats of Tracy Carswell, who said he won’t seek re-election; Debbie Martin, who won a council seat in 2022 to fill the unexpired term of Shant- won Astin; and the former seat of Adam Ledbetter, who stepped down in February to devote attention to his son’s kidney transplant. The qualifying details for these races will be identical to those of the two special elections. JEFFERSON Jefferson will hold quali fying from Aug. 21 through Aug. 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Jefferson City Hall. Seats on the Jefferson City Council up for grabs include: Council member district 1, council member district 3 and council member district 5. The qualifying fee is $75 for council seats. Seats on the ballot for the Jefferson Board of Education include: School board district 1, school board district 3 and school board district 5. Qual ifying fees for school board seats are $36. MAYSVILLE Maysville will host qual ifying on Aug. 21-23 at Maysville City Hall. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1-4:30 p.m. Seats on the ballot include mayor, city council member ward 2 and city council mem ber ward 4. The qualifying fee is $144 for the mayoral seat and $72 for council seats. NICHOLSON Nicholson will hold qual ifying on Aug. 21-23 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Nicholson City Hall. Seats on the ballot in clude the mayoral seat and two Nicholson City Council seats. Fees are $216 for the may- oral seat and $ 108 for council seats. PENDERGRASS Pendergrass will hold qualifying on Aug. 21-23 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Pendergrass City Hall. Seats on the ballot include the mayoral position (held by Nick Geiman) and three council seats (held by Willie Pittmon, Gabriel Gomez and Tara Bonner). The qualifying fee is $35. TALMO Talmo will hold qualifying for two city council seats on Aug. 23-25 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 45 A. J. Irvin Road. Seats on the ballot include Talmo City Council seat 1 and seat 2. Qualifying fees are $10. EOC continued from lA EOG continued from lA Details include: THIRD GRADE Third grade reading (percentage above grade level): •JeffersonAcademy: 87.7 •Commerce Elementary: 85.2 • West Jackson Elementary 80.7 • Maysville Elementary 80.0 • Gum Springs Elementary 78.7 • East Jackson Elementary 75.9 • North Jackson Elementary 71.2 • State 65.9 • South Jackson Elementary 61.1 Third grade ELA i% of developing learner and above!: •JeffersonAcademy: 86.7 •Commerce Elementary: 85.2 •Maysville Elementary: 83.1 • East Jackson Elementary: 82.3 • West Jackson Elementary: 81.2 •Gum Springs Elementary: 77.4 • North Jackson Elementary: 70.3 • State 64.3 • South Jackson Elementary: 57.4 Third grade math t% of developing learner and above!: • Maysville Elementary 98.5 • West Jackson Elementary 97.2 • Jefferson Academy 96.3 • East Jackson Elementary 92.4 • Commerce Elementary 90.6 • Gum Springs Elementary 89.7 • North Jackson Elementary 86.5 • South Jackson Elementary 80.6 • State 79.5 FIFTH GRADE Fifth grade reading 1% above grade level!: • Jefferson Academy 88 • Commerce Middle School 79.8 • West Jackson Elementary 79.8 • North Jackson Elementary 75.6 • East Jackson Elementary 73.3 • Gum Springs Elementary 70.4 • State 68.8 • South Jackson Elementary 64.6 • Maysville Elementary 61.8 English language arts i% developing learner and above!: • Jefferson Academy 93.3 • Commerce Middle School 88.7 • West Jackson Elementary 87.6 • East Jackson Elementary 84.2 • North Jackson Elementary 82.2 • Gum Springs Elementary 79.3 • South Jackson Elementary 77.1 • State 73.5 • Maysville Elementary 67.3 Fifth grade math i% developing learner and above!: • Jefferson Academy 94.3 • Commerce Middle 89.5 • Maysville Elementary 85.5 • West Jackson Elementary 83.9 • North Jackson Elementary 80.0 • Gum Springs Elementary 79.8 • East Jackson Elementary 79.2 • South Jackson Elementary 73.2 • State 68.3 Fifth grade science f% developing learner and above!: • Jefferson Academy 89.3 • Commerce Middle 83.9 • Gum Springs Elementary 70.8 • North Jackson Elementary 70.0 • West Jackson Elementary 68.4 • South Jackson Elementary 66.0 • Maysville Elementary 65.5 • State 64.4 • East Jackson Elementary 62.4 EIGHTH GRADE Eighth grade reading (percentage above grade level!: • Jefferson Middle 88.8 • Commerce Middle 88.3 • West Jackson Middle 77.9 • State 71.5 • East Jackson Comprehensive 53.6 Eighth grade ELA C% developing learner and above!: • Jefferson Middle 93.7 • Commerce Middle 92.2 • West Jackson Middle 82.3 • State 76 • East Jackson Comprehensive 61.4 Eighth grade math tnercentage developing and above!: • Jefferson Middle 93.7 • Commerce Middle 89.8 • West Jackson Middle 83.7 • State 71.1 • East Jackson Comprehensive 64.7 Eighth grade science f% developing learner and above!: • Commerce Middle 77.5 • West Jackson Middle 59.0 • East Jackson Comprehensive 58.3 • Jefferson Middle — • State 52.9 schools fell below the state average. The Georgia Department of Education released the 2022- 23 Milestones results next week. Students can score in four categories (in order from lowest: Beginning, developing, proficient and distinguished learners). The following are results from Jackson County high schools (based on stu dents scoring as developing learner and above): American lit and composition •Jefferson High 94.6 •Commerce High 83.3 •Jackson County High 81.9 •East Jackson Comprehensive 79.7 •State 73.9 Coordinate algebra •Jefferson High 93.8 •Commerce High 90.9 •State 58.1 Pendergrass continued from lA • approved an agreement with CSX for sewerage line easements. • tabled action on five proposed ordinances regulat ing tattoo parlors, garage sales, nuisances, door-to- door salesmen and noise. The council plans to hold a special work session meeting to delve into the pro posals. Algebra 1 • State 66.3 • Jackson County High 63.9 •East Jackson Comprehensive 63.2 Biology • Jefferson High 92.5 • Commerce High 82.4 •East Jackson Comprehensive 80.6 • Jackson County High 78.4 • State 69.9 U.S. History • Jefferson High 94.9 • Commerce High 86 • Jackson County High 79.5 •East Jackson Comprehensive 78.9 • State 72 FREE BIBLE CORRESPONDENCE STUDY THE BIBLE BY CORRESPONDENCE IN YOUR HOME Send Name and address to: Bible Studies P. O. Box 753 Commerce, Georgia 30529 8th grade HS physical science f% developing and above!: • Commerce Middle 100.0 • East Jackson Comprehensive 100.0 • West Jackson Middle 96.0 • Jefferson Middle 81.6 • State 75.8 Eighth grade social studies f% developing and above!: • Jefferson Middle 89.0 • West Jackson Middle 86.2 • Commerce Middle 84.4 • State 70.9 • East Jackson Comprehensive 68.3 QUARTERLY MEETING Jackson County Board of Health will have its quarterly meeting on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, at 12:30 p.m. at the Commerce Clinic located at 623 S. Elm Street, Commerce, GA.