BanksNewsTODAY

A number of Christmas events are planned around Banks County over the next few weeks, including:

MAYSVILLE

Maysville’s “Christmas in the Park” will be held from 2-8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10, in downtown Maysville.

There will be a lighted parade, craft vendors and Santa.

Organizers are asking people to join the lighted parade. There will be no restrictions for the floats with the exception that four-wheelers will not be allowed. The parade will line up on Freeman Street at 5 p.m. The parade will begin at 6 p.m.

Santa will be in the park after the parade for children to visit.

All interested vendors are asked to contact Cyndi, 706-708-6409, Kim, 770-561-5478, or Katrina, 706-983-1565.

ALTO

The Alto Congregational Holiness Church will have a live nativity from 6-8 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 18, at Alto City Hall.

A 20-acre minimum on a conservation use land designation was approved by the Banks County Board of Commissioners at the November meeting.

This does not apply for those who already have a conservation use and plan to renew it.

“If renewing it, can be same number of acres,” county attorney Randall Frost said. “If you increase the number of acres but still don’t reach 20, you can still qualify.”

The Banks County Board of Commissioners approved a rezoning request Tuesday for a business park development.

The BOC unanimously approved the request from the county development authority to rezone 41 acres from ARR to C-2 to develop Hudson River Business Park, located at the corner of Windmill Farm Road and Hwy. 441 North.

The county’s community planner, Brad Day, who handles economic development, presented the request on behalf of the development authority.

The plan calls for locating seven sites on the property, including leaving in greenspace and wetlands. County leaders project that the business park will bring 175 to 200 jobs to the county at its full build out with a $10 million to $25 million investment.

At an earlier planning commission meeting, Day said that the county wants to get a prospect lined up before moving forward.
“We don’t want to do anything until we have a prospect,” Day said at the planning commission meeting. “There has been some interest. No one has signed on the dotted line. We have taken clients out (to the property).”

In other zoning business Tuesday night, the BOC approved a variance request from Ramesh Patel to locate a 12x30 cooler on the side of Homer Grocery Store. The variance is necessary because of the setback requirements.