A half-acre piece of property on Jodeco Road has received an exceptionally restrictive zoning at the August 6 Henry County Board of Commissioners meeting in response to a request for a modification to allow a new business.

  The previous conditions on the C-2 zoning for 3249 Jodeco Road, just west of Tunis Road, limited the uses on the site to a furniture store or an antique store. The owner of the site wanted those conditions removed so he could sell it to a company wanting to develop a pedi-spa location there, specializing the removal of hair and tattoos by laser.

  The application referred to the proposed use as a “quasi-medical office use,” which the applicant’s representative noted was probably not the best way to describe it. But Commissioner Vivian Thomas repeatedly used that term when describing what she did not want to see on that property.

  Thomas made a motion to limit all uses for the site to what she called “traditional medical services,” and it passed 4-2 with Gary Barham and Johnny Wilson voting against it. The applicant’s representative quickly noted that it would be the only property in the entire county to receive such a zoning.

  The company wanting to locate on the site has existing location in Sandy Springs, and a doctor representing the company told the commissioners that all activities in the office are approved by the state’s Composite Medical Board, and all employees are licensed.

  “The way the Henry County code defines a medical office, this would qualify as a medical office,” county attorney Patrick Jaugstetter told the board before the rezoning vote.

  Thomas was having none of it. She stated that she wanted only “board-certified medical services” at that location, but when the doctor told her that the company’s services were certified she changed her wording to “traditional medical services.”

  The property was zoned OI (office-institutional) in 2008 and changed to C-2 in 2017. County staff found no record of any use of the site since then.

  In other zoning business, the commissioners rejected an idea that would have increased the size of the Zoning Advisory Board by giving the Henry County Board of Education an appointee. Currently the seven-member board has one appointee from each of the six commissioners plus a member appointed by the city of Hampton.

  Officials said the proposed resolution to amend the Unified Land Development Code regarding ZAB membership came about as a result of conversations between zoning staff and school district officials. It was pointed out during these meetings that a constant topic of conversation in nearly every ZAB hearing regarding increased residential development was the impact it would have on the area’s schools.

  The commissioners, however, agreed that they didn’t see the need for this action and noted that the current communication between themselves and the school board is working well. A motion to deny the resolution was passed unanimously.