VALDOSTA — The Lowndes County Commission officially invalidated its approval of a transitional care facility on Howell Road.

County commissioners revealed Monday at their work session that the vote was invalid due to public hearing violations. A Lowndes County resident filed a lawsuit challenging the commissioners vote.

Commissioners officially invalidated the earlier vote Tuesday during the regular County Commission meeting.

On June 16, County Commission voted to rezone property at 2193 Howell Road from estate agricultural to planned development for a center called Redeemed Living, founded by Brent Moore. Commissioners approved the vote in a 3-2 split decision in spite of the Planning Commission‘s recommendation for denial.

Redeemed Living is a nonprofit, faith-based recovery residency for men to adjust to regular life after overcoming addiction and treatment.

The decision came under legal scrutiny July 18, when Lowndes County resident Jesse Bush filed a lawsuit in Lowndes County Superior Court against the Lowndes County and the county itself. Bush filed for a declaratory judgment, interlocutory injunction and permanent injunction, citing the rezoning of 2193 Howell Road was improper due to “violations of Georgia’s law regarding the Zoning Procedures and conflicts of interest.”

Alongside the county and the commissioners, the suit specifically names Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker, District 3, who voted to approve the request, Redeemed Living Inc. and Thomas A. Parkerson, owner of the property, as defendants.

According to court records, Bush felt as though his business, 12 Stones Engineering, would suffer “a specific harm” if the rezoning “was allowed to stand despite its unlawful passage,” including “loss of business, loss of safety for customers and employees, loss of reputation, and reduction in property value.”

Count 1 of the Declaratory Injunction states the public hearing portion of the vote was in violation of Unified Land Development Code and Georgia statute by not allowing either side to speak for more than seven minutes when the statute allows both opposition and support to speak for 10 minutes.

It also said “adequate notice and signage were not provided” for the rezoning proposal.

Count 2 of the Declaratory Judgment states that Official Code of Georgia Annotated § 36-66-4(f) stipulates that when a transitional care facility such as Redeemed Living is proposed, a public hearing must be held at least six months and not more than nine months prior to the date of final action on the zoning decision, and the Board of Commissioners did not observe the requirements.

The complaint referred to Redeemed Living as a “halfway house and may provide treatment of drug dependency.”

Count 3 of the Declaratory Injunction states that “upon information and belief, Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker had a financial interest in the outcome of the zoning decision related to 2193 Howell Road based on his business relationship with the property owner (Parkerson).”

Pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 36-67A-2, a local governmental official must disclose a financial interest in the outcome of a zoning decision and must recuse himself from voting on the decision. Bush’s complaint said Wisenbaker failed to properly disclose this information and recuse himself from voting.

Count 4 of the Injunctive Relief Against County of the complaint stated that “(1) there is a substantial threat that the moving party will suffer irreparable injury if the injunction is not granted; (2) the threatened injury to the moving party outweighs the threatened harm that the injunction may do to the party being enjoined; (3) there is a substantial likelihood that the moving party will prevail on the merits of his claims at trial; and (4) granting the interlocutory injunction will not disserve the public interest.”

The complaint claimed that these counts make the rezone “null and void.”

Wisenbaker and the commissioners answered the complaint on Aug. 29 with a filing that states the complaint should be barred thanks to his official immunity and the commissioner’s sovereign immunity.

In a statement to The Valdosta Daily Times, Wisenbaker further denied a relationship with Parkerson.

“There’s absolutely no business and or financial relationship between myself and the owner of the property, Thomas Parkerson,” he said.

The board acknowledged during its Sept. 12 work session that the original vote was invalid due to not following the procedure set forth in codes § 36-66-4(f) and § 36-66-5 regarding the six-to-nine months rule and the speaking time.

Lowndes County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter took full responsibility for the errors at the commissioners meeting Tuesday, Sept. 13, and the original vote was unanimously invalidated. Another public hearing was held for the PD rezone request shortly afterwards, starting the clock for the issue to be revisited again between March and May 2023.