September 15, 2005
The signs are going up (Rezone Applied For) all over the county, heavy equipment is kicking up the dirt, water and sewer pipes are being buried, the code enforcement officer is on the lookout, traffic is getting heavier and the banks are handing out the loans. Meanwhile the Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners are busy trying to keep up with the many rezone requests.

The process is familiar. The Planning Staff sorts out the good and bad (read adherence to the zoning ordinances) of a rezone request and presents it to the Planning Commission, most of the time with conditions, who then recommends a yea or nay to the Board of Commissioners who makes the final decision. If you’ve attended many of these meetings, you will see a young man who appears before these groups quite often to persuade a favorable result for his clients. He is Ken Beall.

Beall is a Real Estate Development Consultant and the CEO of his company, Beall & Company (the former Beall, Gonnsen & Company). He engages in design, land planning, site engineering and landscape architecture. He is also a member and manager of 3 affiliate companies: Resource Valley Development Group, LLC, Resource Medical Development Group, LLC, and the Thornwood Development, LLC. In the 30 years of residence in the area, he has accumulated a long list of awards too numerous to name here. Right ---> New Office at The Summit on Mars Hill Road.

If you listen closely to him at one of these sometimes-emotional meetings he sounds like a lawyer defending his client’s position on a rezone, but you always learn something about Oconee County. One of his often-convincing arguments is the fact that most all of the land in the county in the beginning was zoned A-1 (Agricultural), meaning that most landowners were farmers. He also argues that the County’s Comprehensive Future Land Use Map is only a guide and that the county ordinance should be adhered to as written at the time of the rezone. It’s a demonstration of persuasive powers because after listening, most of the deciding officials approve his clients’ requests. He’s lost a few, but not many. That’s not to say that he is always right about whether or not a rezone is good for the county, but it does indicate a willingness to stay within the law to control growth.

Beall is also cognizant of efforts to build within the constraints for preserving the environment, a must if we are to retain our quality of life. Buffers, retention areas, and the like are always designed in each project with providing a bit of nature to enjoy.

Some of his most notable clients are the Mark Jennings Group who has hired him for several developments, one being the 800-family subdivision known as Parkside appropriately named in reference to being contiguous to the Oconee Community Complex, a 200-acre county park, both on Hwy 53. This is the property which helped to jump start about 2 years ago, the rapid rise of land values. Another is the Promenade to Parkside, 20-acre (+) business park just recently up for approval for rezone, adjacent to the Parkside Subdivision, across the road

from Windy Creek Subdivision on Mars Hill Road.

Another client is Little-Timberlake-Ebbert Group. They are building the Old Farm and Old Farm Estates Subdivision on Cliff Dawson Road, a gated community with half million dollar lots and million dollar homes. Some may not realize that a gated community will bear the cost of upkeep of subdivision streets – a cost savings for the Oconee Road Department. The 24 lots (3 to 4 acres per lot) make up the 68-acre tract. Covenants for the subdivision include 6 different building styles that put limits on the type building materials. Each lot purchaser will choose and build his own home. No spec houses. Each lot will have septic tanks, but all will be on county water.

An old abandoned well in the planned common area on the place is being cleaned out to be used as the community irrigation system by the Old Farm Home Owners Association.

The entrance is beautiful or will be more so when all greenery is planted. It gives a feeling of an invitation to come in and enjoy the good life. Most of the trees on the property were left standing; the rolling hillside is picturesque and the promenade across the spring fed creek is a place for delightful respite. The land across Cliff Dawson is owned by USDA. Land on one side of the subdivision is also owned by USDA. This subdivision land is part of the Dawson family’s old home place and was where former Commission Chairman, Wendell Dawson’s family lived while he was away studying for his law degree..

Who are the folks that will occupy this reclusive subdivision? Several commitments have been made already – a family from California, other southern states and a few from Oconee County. They are professionals – doctors, lawyers and realtors.

Maybe the most visible development with a Beall handprint is the Town Center on Main Street in Watkinsville, owned by client, Mike Thornton. The Town Center 2-story attractive building will eventually house 27 tenants, businesses of all flavors and will add income for the county’s tax base. Others include the Resource Medical Office Park, Oak Grove Subdivision and Old Waverly Subdivision.

Although it may be as many as 10 years before some of these subdivisions and business parks will be built out, the architectural renderings are worthy of the county’s efforts to make the county pleasing to the eye and a great place to live, work and play.

Ken Beall has definitely made his mark on this County.

The Beall Company and staff (14) have recently re-located their office from Bogart to a new building in the Summit on Mars Hill, a business park designed by Beall & Company. His office is more than 5,000 sq ft with workspace, a spacious reception and a conference room with modern tech audio/visual equipment. He and his wife Denise live in Lake Wellbrook. Denise has taught kindergarten for 18 years. Both graduated from the University of Georgia with honors. They have 3 adult children: Adam Harrison who is in his 3rd year of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta; Whitney Jonathan who is a senior at the University of Georgia’s College of Environment & Design; and Kenneth Grey is a sophomore at the Oconee branch of Gainesville College.

Ken Beall has been a registered professional landscape architect in Georgia since 1984.