Trial underway to decide a Lake Keowee zoning appeal
A dispute that has been going for about two years has reached the Oconee County courtroom. It’s an appeal of a decision that granted an engineering survey company a variance from right of-way to build a public road. Testimony in Ratliff versus Oconee is being heard in the Common Pleas Court as a non-jury matter, to be decided by the presiding judge, Lawton McIntosh. As the first witness, the plaintiff’s side has called Jimmy Ratliff, a resident of the Ellenburg Road and the owner of John’s Marine. One of the co-defendants is the limited partnerships of both Globe and Farmes. Both jointly own an undeveloped 15-acre Lake Keowee peninsula that has been proposed for a home development. Likely to be ruled on in this trial is the proper classification for Ellenburg Road: is it a county road? Is it a public road? And to what extent, if any, is it maintained by county or state government. In opening comments, defense lawyer Andrew Holliday maintained that the road was bi-sected by the lake construction in the 1960s and there never was a proper process followed by the plaintiffs to abandon part of Ellenburg as a public road.