Appeals board rejects two requests

The meeting room for the Oconee Board of Zoning Appeals filled with property owners last night, motivated in opposition to a pair of applications—one for a variance and the other for a special exception. In each instance the appeals board turned down the application. Potential issues of building one home close to another appeared to sway the board to reject Greenville resident Bill Hammond’s request for a variance of five feet from the side property line setback in the Laurel Point subdivision. Most of last night’s meeting centered on a special exception application for property on Waterfall Road in the vicinity of High Falls Park on Lake Keowee. Waterfall Road resident Carol Belcher spoke in support of an exception to allow for the expansion of a recreation vehicle park. Belcher announced plans to attract what she called “a high end clientele” who would bring expensive RVs. But several property owners, including those who live in the Peninsula home development, complained that the park expansion would take away from the nature of their single-family homes inside a lake overlay district. Board member Marty McKee explained his position this way: “We have to be mindful of the fact that just because something comes and is ‘upscale’ that may not necessarily mean that someone else gets pushed out because of it…”