Following numerous concerns about expected land use updates, Dawson County officials had their work cut out for them with the ongoing moratorium on residential rezones.

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During their Feb. 16 voting session, the Dawson County Board of Commissioners decided to 

prolong that moratorium for up to another three months.

“What would be a reasonable amount of time to extend this and hopefully not have to extend it again?”, District 4 Commissioner Emory Dooley said to the rest of the board Thursday. 

After some discussion at the voting session, the board settled on 90 days.

The moratorium will be heard again on May 18, during the same voting session as the property rules. That meeting will begin directly after the board’s 4 p.m. work session that Thursday.

By extending the moratorium again and then cutting it short if need be, the county would not have to advertise again for a public hearing, Dooley added. 

The BOC approved an initial moratorium last July and then extended it in August and November to give the county more time to study proposed changes to its impact fees and land use rules.

The county charges impact fees to people building on commercial and residential properties to help offset costs for infrastructure like roads, recreation facilities and ambulance services. 

During the moratorium process, the board decided to exempt single-family applicants from the measure in October after multiple constituents contacted them about the hardship it imposed.

Back in August, the BOC authorized the consulting firm for the impact fee study and the majority of the project’s work. Dawson County’s impact fees were last updated in 2018. 

On Thursday, Planning and Development Director Sharon Farrell clarified that the consulting firm was looking for information from one other department ahead of a project update. 

“The good thing about it is if we get everything accomplished that we want to in 30 days,” added 

BOC Chairman Billy Thurmond, “we can lift the moratorium [earlier].”