Photo Credit: Lee Becker

The Parkside entrance off of Hog Mountain Road.

The owners of the long-dormant Westland and Parkside subdivisions have filed suit again Oconee County, seeking to block the decision by the Board of Commissioners to refund sewer capacity fees for the massive master plan developments.

In three separate lawsuits filed in Oconee County Superior Court, the owners contend, among other things, that the Board of Commissioners violated state zoning laws when it voted on Jan. 31 to refund sewer capacity fees paid by the developers of Westland and Parkside as well as by two other residential project developers.

The effect of that Jan. 31 decision was to render the master plan development zoning held by Westland and Parkside meaningless, since the projects depend on sewer capacity, and the county took its action without proper hearings on what amounted to a zoning decision, the suits contend.

The decision by the Board of Commissioners on Jan. 31 was part of a plan to reduce the demands on the county’s two small sewage treatment facilities.

If the Parkside and Westland land owners are successful in getting the court to block that decision, it could force the county to move more quickly on expansion of its Calls Creek treatment plant and to upgrade its Rocky Branch Land Application Site.

For more, visit Oconee County Observations.