The proposed noise ordinance that led residents to pack the Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday went quietly away.
About 80 people crammed into the meeting room and foyer, and others stood in the parking lot to potentially voice their concerns about a revised noise ordinance on the agenda, but District 1 Commissioner Howard Sanders killed the item before any other business was discussed.
“We’re not changing anything tonight,” Sanders said. “The old ordinance is in place.”
The proposed new ordinance, which was posted in various Oglethorpe County Facebook groups last week, was scheduled for discussion and drew what Commissioner Tracy Norman said was the biggest crowd to a BOC meeting since the spring of 2021. That meeting was moved to the courthouse to accommodate the crowd, he said.
Most of the residents stayed for the entirety of Monday’s meeting, which lasted about 70 minutes, even though the proposed ordinance was moved ahead of two public hearing items and five other agenda items.
“This whole thing about the zoning got started because we were receiving a lot of phone calls from people, especially the elderly in our community, about loud parties going on that could be heard inside their home,” Sanders said. “I don’t know how all this got blown out of proportion.”
The proposed ordinance would have replaced the existing county code in Sections 20-25 through 20-30, providing more details. Sections 20-31 and 20-32 were added to the proposed ordinance as more specifics were added to other sections.
The current ordinance prohibits “excessively loud or disturbing noise” between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily and between 6 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Sundays in the unincorporated areas of the county (Sec. 20-26).
The proposed ordinance included specifics about sound-producing devices, human-produced noise and party or social gathering noise. Section 20-27 gave specifics about “routine property maintenance or construction activities.”
“When you have a party that’s going on that can be heard three and four miles from the source of the party, that becomes a problem,” Sanders said after the meeting. “And you have elderly people that try to go to bed at 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock — you got a party going on at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, it can be heard inside their home while they're trying to sleep — that’s a problem.”
Chairman Jay Paul encouraged the residents to call him and the commissioners about issues and avoid Facebook.
“If you have some concerns, a question, call me,” he said. “Call anyone of these commissioners. It’s not a covert operation. We’re not trying to do something deceitful and underhand and slip something by you. Call me.”
Lisa Stacy and Elizabeth Stich, who each live in Hawk’s Landing, used the public discussion portion of the meeting to complain about soil amendments (often referred to as sludge) being dumped on land along Crawford-Smithonia Road.
“I’m sick and tired of the smell, and I’m sick and tired of the sludge being spread, all these forever chemicals contaminating our soil, making us sick, increasing our chances of cancer, as well as decreasing the (vaccine response in children),” Stacy said. “It’s horrible. I can’t walk outside half the time, not to mention the fact that this is decreasing our property values.”
Paul and the commissioners have been vocal about their opposition to sludge dumping in the county and passed an ordinance in 2023. The ordinance requires soil amendment applications to be at least 100 feet from property lines and water sources.
“It has been the hill I’m going to die on,” Paul said. “I despise it.”
In other business, the commissioners:
- unanimously approved Randy Ogle’s request for a revision to the original site plan for 30 Ogle Drive (Tax Parcel 022 048A) to add a stackhouse.
- unanimously approved Travis Legg’s request for a revision to the original site plan for 3380 Smithonia Road (Tax Parcel 045 008) to add a stackhouse.
- unanimously approved new rules of decorum for county commission meetings. The rules will be posted on the county’s website after requested edits are made, clerk Amy Forrester wrote in an email.
- unanimously approved the permit for the Firefly Trail, Inc. Athens Physical Therapy Firefly to Ride on March 28.
- modified the no thru truck ordinance, which was passed last May, to include Will Wynne Road, Thaxton Wynne Road, Thaxton Road and Young Road.
- unanimously approved continuing to use EagleView Technology’s 6-inch imagery for tax assessments and disaster response coverage for the next three years.
- heard from county administrator Jason Lewis, who presented a 36-month technology expansion, upgrade and modernization strategic plan that would upgrade the technology in the Board of Commissioners meeting room, the county’s website and the 911 system, in addition to other areas.
- heard from Oglethorpe County Library branch manager Nicole Hensley, who presented updates and plans.
- heard from Public Works Director Adam Nation, who said the bridge on Crawford-Smithonia Road should be ready by the end of the month. The bridge, which originally opened in 1958, is being replaced.