TIFTON — More than 40 people turned out for the Jan. 13 Tift County Board of Commissioners meeting, mostly to speak against a proposed rezoning of 42 acres near the Brighton Road exit off I-75.

Part of that 42 acres is already zoned for Community Commercial; the request would zone the entire tract as Community Commercial.

According to county staff, the owner plans to sell the land and wants it rezoned to make it more attractive to buyers.

“We don’t believe the rezoning would be detrimental to any of the properties,” said Matt St. Bell, a lawyer representing the land owner. “We believe it’s consistent with the land use plan.”

“This property has been in my family since the 1930s,” said Jeff Walters, whose family owns the land. “My father grew up on this and I spent a lot of summers here as a young boy.”

A number of the residents from a nearby subdivision spoke against the rezoning.

Resident Patrick Willis was concerned about businesses coming in that could be open 24 hours a day: pharmacies, gas stations, all night restaurants.

That could increase traffic in the area and require more police presence, he said.

Mark Hasty worried about the same.

“Anything they put over there is going to increase traffic and increase crime,” said Hasty.

Carolyn Slate was concerned about potential water use of any new businesses.

Some residents worried that businesses coming in could change the area.

“This place and these people, what we have is a sacred community,” said Lonnie Lacy. “We’re hoping to keep that.”

“This property has been in my client’s family for a long time,” said St. Bell. “What my client’s asking for is to be treated like any other landowner.”

The board voted to deny the request, to the applause of the audience. Multiple commissioners suggested the landowner develop a detailed plan of what would happen to the property.

“Nobody has done anything wrong here,” said commissioner Tony McBrayer. “It’s too open ended what might go there.”

The board voted to rescind their previous approval for a resolution supporting an increase in the Hotel/Motel Tax, from 5% to 7%.

Tyron Spearman, executive director of the Tifton-Tift County Tourism Association, asked commissioners to support the increase at the Sept. 3 TCBOC meeting.

To go into effect, the proposed increase would also have to be approved by the Tifton City Council and then carried to the Georgia legislature in January, where it would have to be approved by elected state officials.

Commissioner Stan Stalnaker advised pausing the process at the Jan. 7 meeting, citing concerns about discrepancies between the resolutions the city and county passed.

“Right now, we have two different resolutions,” said Stalnaker. “They don’t mirror each other. Frankly, I don’t think they’d advance this legislation without them mirroring each other.”

He advised meeting throughout 2020 with the city and then sending it up to the legislature in 2021.

The board approved:

• Repairs to the weather sirens at Omega, Chula, Ty Ty and the Southside Community Center.

• Purchasing 117 desktop computers, 17 workstations and 32 laptops, for a total of $134,522.

• Setting qualifying fees for the 2020 election.

• Replacing a majority of the county’s security cameras, along with servers and cables. They chose a $431,663 bid from Coopercraft Communications.

The next Tift County Board of Commissioners meeting will be 6 p.m on Feb. 4 at the Kent Administrative Building.