Fannin resident and Falls Over Lake Blue Ridge Homeowners Association president Barbara Shrewsbury spoke, during a Fannin County Board of Commissioners meeting January 14, against a variance request from Serene Mountain Properties to build four new homes with porches 17 feet from the edge of Grandeur Drive and 24.5 feet from the centerline of that same road.
Shrewsbury believes the plans discussed in the variance request conflict with one another.
“It says that the porch will be 17 feet from the edge of Grandeur Drive, but the edge of any road in Fannin County, we had someone study this, is considered where the easement is,” she said. “If he goes 17 feet off the road, that’s going to be 37 feet from the center of the road. He says he’s going to go 24.5 feet from the centerline. … That’s 4.5 feet from our road easement.”
She explained that in a situation where the road may collapse the Homeowners Association would no longer have the ability to fix it.
She said. “If the road collapses or has an issue that we have to rebuild it and put up a wall, because if you’ve been up there it’s extremely steep, if we have to go put a support wall to keep that road up, we won’t have anymore room. It’s going to be in their driveway or something.”
According to Shrewsbury, the proposed wells in the variance are all located right off the paved road and in the road easement.
“Not only would we have too close, 4.5 feet from the road, but we’re going to have a well sitting right off the main road,” she said.
She also expressed her concern that the road that the Homeowners Association has paid to pave and maintain will be damaged during construction or will become dangerous to drivers due to construction debris.
Chairman Stan Helton told Shrewsbury that the board does not get involved in Homeowners Association disputes. She responded, “This isn’t a Homeowners Association issue. This is a safety issue.”
Helton said, “Well you represented it as a Homeowners Association, so we’re not going to get in the middle of that. What we typically do, and what I’m willing to recommend to the other commissioners here, is that we ask our inspection office to get in touch with this gentleman and see if there’s anything that can be worked out with you folks to have a peaceful resolution to this.”
Shrewsbury told the board that the Land Development website listed the setback of the center of the road is 55 feet, the setback from the edge of the road or easement is 35 feet and reiterated that the variance request was asking for 24 feet from the center of the road.
“That’s basically cutting like over 30 feet off your easement,” she said. “Why are we having easements and setbacks if we totally ignore them and put a house four feet from the road? You wouldn’t do it on Aska Road, you wouldn’t do it on a main road, you wouldn’t do it on a county road. … This is a dangerous situation.”
The board voted to table the variance request until Tuesday, January 28. However, Post One Commissioner Earl Johnson abstained from voting because Johnson Paving had paved the road in the past.