COVINGTON, Ga. — Landowners on Crowell Road saw plans for their properties derailed after county commissioners voted to deny two zoning requests Tuesday.

District 3 Commissioner Alana Sanders said neighbors' wishes and other commissioners' concerns about past flooding led her to seek denial of a zoning request for construction of 300 homes and a new county park overlooking the Yellow River.

Neighbors' concerns and unsuccessful efforts to bring the facility into compliance with county codes for two years also factored into Sanders' request for denial of a Conditional Use Permit sought by Nicole Kanoy for a wild animal rehabilitation facility on her five-acre property.  

Sanders said many residents called her to complain about the rehabilitation center, which housed 87 animals of all types in a residential area near Newton High School in mid-November.

"Finding out there were 87 animals and six alligators in my district in a residential area is really shocking," Sanders said. "And wolves and coyotes and bears and cows, oh my."

Kanoy's wildlife rehabilitation center, called Wildlife Critters Circle of Life Rehabilitation Center, includes pens for a wide variety of injured animals, including alligators and some small mammals. She also has featured an area as a petting zoo for some of the animals, according to her website.

The nonprofit was allowed to operate on the Crowell Road site because it was "grandfathered in," Kanoy said.

Development Services director Judy Johnson said previously that the property was zoned for residential uses but the nonprofit was a "legal, nonconforming" use because previous owners kept horses and other hooved animals on the site before the county approved a zoning ordinance in the early 1970s.

Kanoy said after the meeting she planned to find another location for the animals — many sick and injured — that people bring to her. She said she invited commissioners to see the nonprofit but they never came. 

She also was disappointed that county officials had told her she could have her animals there at one point.

"It is very disheartening that the injured and rescue animals won’t have a place to go," she said.

The Board of Commissioners also voted to deny a request from Denny Dobbs to change what can be developed on a 51-acre site just south of I-20's Crowell Road exit.

It is located on a long, narrow tract sandwiched between Crowell and Harold Dobbs roads on the west and the Yellow River on the east.

Sanders said she "wanted to reiterate to developers" that she met with District 3 residents about the project.

"They did express how they felt," she said. "They weren't in favor of the project."

Properties fronting Access Road on the north and undeveloped land on the south border the site. Part of the site is in the Yellow River floodplain.

Dobbs had requested a change from Tier 1 of the overlay district, which allows only residential construction, to Tier 2 on the entire site to allow construction of a mixed-use development because part of it is in the floodplain of the Yellow River, zoning officials said.

Sanders said county commissioners in the past had placed the land "in those specific tiers for a reason."

Other current commissioners also described how Riverside Estates mobile home park that faces the site across the Yellow River often floods during heavy rains. The county sometimes is forced to rescue residents and the doing the same thing for the those living on the requested land would "cost the county a lot more money," Sanders said.

Gee Harvey, who was working with Dobbs to develop the site, told commissioners Oct. 19 that plans include a 300-lot subdivision on part of the site and land bordering the Yellow River that would be given to the county government for development of a public park.

Harvey showed commissioners a site plan that included a single-family subdivision with 241 single-family homes in the central and south part of the site surrounding a planned lake; and a section on the north edge backing up to Harold Dobbs Road that contained 59 townhomes.

The land is now undeveloped and is surrounded by single-family residential uses on the south and west, Riverside Estates mobile home park across the Yellow River on the east, and churches and Salem Cemetery on the north.

Development Services Director Judy Johnson said Oct. 19 the park was planned to be almost 300 feet from the river and be partly outside the floodplain.

She detailed staff conditions for the park, including daily hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; a 25-space parking area; and installation of a metal gate, security lights, storage building, picnic pavilion, a minimum of five picnic tables, a dog park, walking trail and a “tot lot” for ages 3 to 8. Camping and barbecue grills would be prohibited, she said.

Harvey said developers did not plan to create any direct access points to the river across an existing buffer area for those wanting to partake in such activities as kayaking.

The tier change request was the first step in the process to gain approval for development of the land.

The county’s Almon, Salem and Brick Store overlay districts add extra requirements to the base zoning requirements for new construction within their boundaries and regulates such things as construction materials and the minimum distances buildings must be located from property lines.