Flea market proposal off the map

Tommy Rainey’s dream retirement is to start and own a flea market.
“I’ve been on the Fire Department and Rescue and EMT for 35 years and this is my retirement money,” Rainey told the Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners. “...I’ve been trying to start a flea market for as long as I’ve been in the fire department.”
However at the moment, that dream is in jeopardy.
The Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners disapproved the Special Land Use Application request for a new flea market that would’ve been located at 5738 S. Chestatee Street during the required SLUA public hearing on March 16, voting 3-1 in opposition of the flea market.
“The request has been denied and the decision of the Board of Commissioners regarding the SLUA decision shall be considered a final decision,” Chairman Chris Dockery said following the vote.
After a presentation of the SLUA by Bruce Georgia, Lumpkin County’s Director of Planning, Rainey spoke about his vision for the one acre tract he’d arranged to lease in hopes of opening a flea market.
“I know this will help the community because so far I’ve got everybody in Dahlonega wanting it,” Rainey said. “I’ve got 50 dealers from Dahlonega wanting to sell their stuff. Everybody out of a job, this is the only way they’ve got to make any money.”
Rainey’s claim of “everybody in Dahlonega” did not include JoAnne Taylor, a member of the Dahlonega City Council, who spoke in opposition of the SLUA request at the hearing. Taylor clarified before her remarks that she was not speaking on behalf of the city nor as a council member, but rather as a concerned citizen of Lumpkin County.

MAPPED OUT

“The issues I see in granting a SLUA for this use is that it’s specifically not in the current character area guidelines to have an open air flea market,” Taylor said. “It’s not included there as an option.”
Georgia later told The Nugget that the proposed plan did not meet the location’s criteria of the character area, which the county began to form in 2019.
“The intent really doesn’t fall in with the gateway corridor or the overlay district, where we’re wanting to insure that everybody coming in, that’s their first look into the county,” he said. “Aesthetically and certainly because of traffic and things like that, we want to make sure that it’s built to what the citizens who participated when we started developing this area here wanted to see. We did that through surveys, public hearings...That happened in ‘19...went through the whole public hearing process and participation committees. It was a well thought out document and a lot of good input from all different folks in the community.”
Taylor expressed her concerns about the aesthetics as well.
“I’m concerned about the attractiveness for future professional development in that quadrant of our county,” she told the board during the meeting. “The plans for a hospital and accompanying doctors offices or other outbuildings might be affected if this board makes the decision to make an exception against the gateway corridor guidelines for this use.”
Taylor commended the county for its work to protect the area through the creation of the character area map and asked the board to deny the proposed flea market in continuation of that work.
“This board has already made the very difficult, but forward-looking decision to create a character area map with certain requirements for the gateway corridors entering our county,” she said. “I was very happy to see that because I don’t want our community to start looking like the communities to the south of us and I think you’ve done a really good job of that.”

STRINGER SUPPORT

After hearing the public comments from Rainey in favor of the flea market and Taylor in its opposition, the board looked to take action. Following Commissioner Dr. David Miller’s motion to wait for further approval from GDOT regarding the entrance and exit of the property, which died due to the lack of support from the rest of the board, Commissioner Rhett Stringer made a motion to approve the SLUA request. When asked, Stringer explained his position to The Nugget.
“I know and understand the need for the updates to the county regs in the gateway corridor area, but I also understand people trying to get by and pay their bills in times like we are currently living,” Stringer said. “I feel like in this situation, where a developer buys a property with the intent to develop or resale, this venture will only last until the property sells or is developed. I have a hard time voting against private property rights in addition to all the regulations that already exist. This wasn’t something way out of line compared to what’s gone on in that area for years.”
Stringer’s motion also died without the support of the board. Miller followed Stringer’s move with a motion to disapprove the SLUA, which was seconded and brought to a vote. Commissioners Miller, Jeff Moran and Bobby Mayfield all voted in favor of disapproving the SLUA, while Stringer voted in opposition of the disapproval.
Immediately following the SLUA hearing, the board held a separate public hearing to adjust the character area map to include two additional parcels in the Gateway Corridor Overlay District, including the tract containing Rainey’s SLUA request. That amendment, along with one additional change to the character area map, involving land categorized for industrial use, were passed.
Rainey has the ability to appeal the decision of the board, however as of press time, plans of an appeal have not been made public.