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Appeals board denies billboard owner's request Members of Cherokee County's Board of Appeals denied a request for a variance to a local outdoor advertising company that wants to subdivide land into plots that are too small under county land use regulations. The issue is far from dead, however, as all three members of the appeals board recommended Daisy Outdoor Advertising petition the county Planning Commission to consider changing county ordinances. Daisy Outdoor Advertising has four billboards on a plot of land it had been leasing on Henson Road near Blacksburg. The land changed ownership, however, and Daisy made arrangements to purchase the land on which the billboards sit. Each billboard sits on 1/20th of an acre, however, and the county's land use regulations require lot sizes of at least 1/2 acre in order to create new parcels. Daisy Outdoor Advertising was seeking a variance from the minimum lot size requirements so it could legally record its land purchase in county records. Cherokee County Building Official Chuck Bobo, and Chip Bentley, an advisor from the Appalachian Council of Governments, both believed the Board of Appeals wasn't the appropriate forum for this matter. "At this point, I think everyone agrees it should be done by ordinance amendment instead of by variance," Bentley said. The county's land use regulations make no special mention or exception for billboards. It was estimated that it would take at least three to six months for the Planning Commission to adopt billboard-related land use regulations if it was inclined to do so. Officials from Daisy Outdoor Advertising did not attend the Board of Appeals hearing. In another matter, the appeals board granted a variance to Gaffney developer Brad Wilkins. Wilkins constructed a commercial building at 311A Chesnee Highway and land use regulations require specific types of fencing or shrubbery as a buffer between commercial properties and residential properties. Though Wilkins' property is bordered by a residential property, Wilkins presented signed letters from adjacent property owners that said they did not want fencing on the property lines and Wilkins noted future commercial development is planned for the adjacent properties. "I know there may be future commercial (development) but right now they are residential," Bobo told the appeals board. As such, he said his hands were tied under the county's land use regulations and had to require a buffer fence be installed. The board, after weighing the matter, granted Wilkins a variance so he doesn't have to install a fence or shrubbery on the property line. |
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