Chattooga County Commissioner Blake Elsberry faced some tough questions this week at a meeting of the Chattooga County Planning Committee concerning the land use ordinance that he adopted earlier this year.

The meeting, which was attended by close to fifty people and was available for viewing on WZQZ’s Facebook Page, featured questions about how the ordinance would impact families that wish to divide their property and farming operations in Chattooga County.   Commissioner Elsberry was questioned as to why he adopted the ordinance without having more public input from local agricultural producers and farmers.

Chattooga Young Farmer Director Lauren Jarrett was one of the many people who had questions at the meeting.  Jarrett said that some land owners were concerned about family property that had been in the same families for generations and how the new ordinance would affect future generations that wanted to build or farm on the land.  Jarrett said, “I believe that is a lot of people’s concerns.  You’ve got family property that has been in the same families for hundreds of years and suddenly (because of the new ordinance) they can’t divide their land the way they want to.”

The committee said that they had addressed that issue “previously”, however this was the first public meeting advertised by the commissioner’s office for the planning committee.

Another problem with the ordinance appears to be the lack of an appeals process.  Elsberry promised that a process would be in place, but was unable to provide how that process would work.

The new land use ordinance is available on the commissioner’s web site, however the committee that is overseeing the ordinance admitted that they had not read the entire document.  The commissioner is promising that problems that come up with the ordinance will be addressed.

You can watch the entire meeting on WZQZ’s Facebook page HERE