A variance for a 25.3-acre industrial site in the McDonough warehouse corridor was approved by the Henry County Zoning Advisory Board at its September 30 regular meeting.

The applicant, who intends to build a 321,300-square-foot warehouse on the site at 559 Jerry Steele Lane, requested relief from stream buffer protection requirements in order to pipe the existing stream on the site. According to a county staff report, the request was reviewed and authorized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as well as the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

In other business, a rezoning request for a 30.1-acre site was recommended for denial while the vote on a variance request for the same property was deadlocked. Both requests will now go before the Henry County Board of Commissioners for a final decision.

The site is at 3539 Jonesboro Road, less than a half-mile west of North Mount Carmel Road, and the proposed change from R-2 to R-3 zoning would allow the development of a 53-lot subdivision. The variance request is for relief from Highway Corridor Overlay District requirements, specifically with regard to streets.

The ZAB voted to recommend approval of a rezoning as well as an amendment to the county’s comprehensive plan regarding a 72.1-acre piece of property on the north side of Jonesboro Road about a half-mile east of I-75. The RA (residential agricultural) site was rezoned to MU (mixed use) for a combination of 55 single-family residences and 80 multi-family townhome residences on the northern end of the property along with commercial development along Jonesboro Board.

The designation on the county’s future land use map was changed from low-density residential to mixed use to support the rezoning.