The 4-1 vote by the commission reversed an earlier vote by the county’s planning commission and went against a staff recommendation to approve the project.
“This is a residential area,” said Bill Braswell, who joined Rick Wilson, Martha Santiago and Neil Combee in a vote against the concept. “It sounds like the school is a fantastic school, a great program, but it’s still a business. This would be a non-residential use dropped into a residential area. I don’t see it as compatible.”
Commissioner George Lindsey cast the lone vote to approve the project. When all else fails read the instructions, he said. Staff did their analysis and came to the same conclusion as the planning commission. To characterize this (school) as commercial is a bit of an overstatement.