Lost Mountain Nursery was granted a special land-use permit (SLUP) at the Cobb County Board of Commissioners zoning hearing on Tuesday. The property is on Poplar Springs Road at Dallas Highway.

The unusual zoning case began when the owner of 30 years, Teena Barnes, discovered that the nursery, whose property was zoned R-30 residential, was required to apply for a temporary land use permit every two years.

Lost Mountain Nursery requests rezoning

Previously, at the Planning Commission meeting on July 3, the lawyer representing the nursery, Kevin Moore, said the property was in the past granted a temporary land use permit that had to be renewed every two years, even though it was a permanent business. Barnes didn’t realize the renewal requirement existed and had let the permit lapse.

Although the original request was to rezone from R-30 to Neighborhood Retail Commerical (NRC) Moore said rezoning to commercial wasn’t the real intent of the request.  The purpose of the request is so that Barnes can operate on a permanent legal basis without having to remember to file for the temporary permit every two years, and plant nurseries were not on the list of businesses eligible for receiving a SLUP.

Lost Mountain Nursery had concerns that if the temporary land use classification remained in place, it would make the 30-year-old business subject to the whims of a future Board of Commissioners and that it would make dealing with lending institutions difficult.

An adjacent neighbor who spoke at the Planning Commission meeting in opposition to the rezoning said he did not object to the plant nursery operating but did not want to open the door for other commercial uses on that property or on other properties that might try to use this case as a precedent for future rezonings.

The planning commission decided that a SLUP was the most appropriate zoning category, and passed it along with that recommendation to let the BOC determine whether the SLUP was legally allowable.