Page 16, June 24, 2019, The Islander
'If you'd just follow
the rules..."
I’m turning Back Talk over to sis
ter Pam this week for something she’s
been wanting to say for a while.
I think I may have enough room at
the end for some comments of my own
on a different subject.
Enjoy!!
Matthew Permar
By Pamela Permar-Shierling
So I’m doing a little light reading
of the Glynn County zoning ordinance
Section 701. Here’s what it says:
701.1 Intent of Districts. “It is the
intent of this section that the R-6, R-9,
M-6, M-9, Mh-6 and Mh-9 One-Family
Residential Zoning Districts he devel
oped and reserved for low-to-medium
density residential purposes.
The regulations which apply within
these districts are designed to encour
age the formation and continuance of
a stable, healthy environment for one-
family dwellings situated on zoning
lots having an area of six thousand
(6,000) square feet or more, and to dis
courage any encroachment hy commer
cial, industrial, high density residen
tial, or other uses capable of adversely
affecting the single-family residential
character of the district. It is further
the intent that no additional land he
rezoned to the R-6 district in Plan
ning District 2 (St. Simons Island)
after December 31, 2002. (0-2002-20,
11/7/2002).”
You will have to trust me on the
next two items.
701 permitted uses do not include
parks. Conditional uses do include
non-commercial recreation areas but,
and it’s a big but, the use of any rec
reational area is for subdivision resi
dents and guests only.
701.4.4 (conditional uses recre
ational areas) says in compliance with
Section 702.4, and 702.4 is where the
conditional uses are detailed.
So how can you require, albeit a
public road, that goes through R6 zon
ing, no commercial parks allowed, to
be used to get to almost 300 acres of
commercial park?
This is what is happening at Ger
man Village. The St. Simons Land
Trust wants to use their road, the
only road in and out of the neighbor
hood, to access their new park, Guale
Preserve.
Would you only limit access to a
commercial area through a subdivi
sion, particularly a subdivision with
only one way in and one way out,
one with a very narrow public road
on which two vehicles cannot pass,
on which school busses don’t travel,
on which large vehicles such as land
scape trucks, delivery vans, and tour
buses have to travel down the middle
of the road?
Remedial planning 101 says to me,
a layman, of course not. Especially
when your ordinance has codified the
formation of and “continuance of a
The Islander EDITORIAL
Pamela Permar
Shierling
Editor
stable, healthy environment for one-
family dwellings.”
Yes I am speaking about Guale
Preserve purchased in phases, three
so far with an option for a fourth, by
the St. Simons Land Trust.
It’s also odd that Glynn County has
committed to spend $5,000 for an ordi
nance to regulate short term rentals.
While there are a number of reasons
to regulate the rentals, one reason
that has been repeated is traffic and
parking problems from the rentals
along public neighborhood streets.
The county could still potentially
spend another $90,000 a year for a
consultant to monitor these rentals.
The odd part is the county has been
silent when it comes to German Vil
lage residents’ very real concerns
about the parking and traffic issues
they could be facing in connection with
Guale Preserve. What’s up with that?
Nor has the Land Trust ever public
ly presented a full site plan to anyone;
not the Islands Planning Commission,
not the Community Development De
partment, and above all not to the
German Village Property owners
association.
Why?
Who needs drivers?
By Matthew J. Permar
So it seems Pam did leave me a bit
of room. Yay!
I found some very interesting
things in Pam’s Page 2 article about
the Brunswick City Commission and
their budget.
There’s a ‘Mass Transit Fund’ in
case the city receives federal and state
transportation grants totaling almost
$400,000. The department would re
quire in infusion of $43,000 from the
general fund as well.
A $423,000 expense to purchase
buses is included.
A couple of things.... first, public,
mass transportation systems have
been studied here for years and have
never been deemed a good idea.
Second, let’s say the city gets the
$400,000 grant and buys a bunch of
buses.
There is no mention anywhere of
how they will fund salaries for driv
ers and mechanics and admin people
to run the system. I promise you, there
won’t be enough left out of the grant
to do it.
And what about fuel? How do they
pay for that?
$400,000 is a wasted drop in the
bucket of our tax dollars for an abso
lutely unnecessary project.
There has been absolutely no fore
thought or planning put into this - it’s
just, “Oh, money! Yeah, we’ll take it.”
We Know
YOU’RE
READY?
but it’s never too early to start planning.
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