Planning Commission thumbs up to design guidelines

Out of a Walhalla City Hall meeting last night, a recommendation that city council adopt design guidelines to apply to the core business district downtown.  As explained during a public hearing sponsored by the planning commission, those guidelines would be linked to an updated city zoning ordinance that Administrator Brett Taylor predicts is “three months away.”  After presentations by two county staff members who are helping Walhalla, the city planning commission voted 4-0 to recommend to city council.  Mayor Danny Edwards, who attended the meeting, said afterward that he supports design guidelines and believes they’ll work in Walhalla.  Janet Hartman, Destination Oconee Manager, outlined an 80-page document and said zoning depicts what should be done while design guidelines tell how it is to be done.  Guidelines encompass much that deals with how a building looks and a property is maintained.  According to Hartman, it’s the desire that future development downtown adhere to the look of older building.  But in development, she conceded, new building that resembles old is not always possible or practical.  Bill Huggins, county planner, said in design guidelines the city’s zoning administrator, James Ashton, has more flexibility to work with building owners and developers than he does in having to enforce the black-and-white of a zoning law.  In response to a question from Luther Lyle about the renovation work currently underway at the Museum of the Cherokee on Short Street, Lyle was told that existing buildings and property are considered grandfathered and changes made before the adoption of design guidelines will stand.