The Glynn County Commission is scheduled to hear a proposal Thursday that would restrict certain plans and permits from going before the county planning commissions.

Commissioner for St. Simons, Sea and Jekyll islands Peter Murphy is backing the motion, saying that the planning and zoning department of the Community Development Department is so swamped with work and shorthanded that director Pamela Thompson cant effectively look for replacements for staff that left last year. As such, he would like a moratorium to temporarily stop site plans, conditional use permits and preliminary plat proposals from being heard by the planning commissions.

Currently, three positions in planning and zoning remain unfilled. Two planner slots have been empty since July of 2016, leaving one full-time planner to work on roughly 180 applications per month. Cayce Dagenhart was the only person in the office until Thompson and Savannah urban planning consultant Denise Grabowski was brought on late last year and in January, respectively.

The motivation is the lack of adequate staffing in the community development office. As we both know, full staffing is a community development director, who also has other divisions underneath her, three planning staffers and a planning manager, Murphy said. We have a part time planning expert that is here one day a week from Savannah, but our staffing is very much below what the standard should be for the work that they have, and my fear is that errors will be made and have been made that will affect the planning process, especially here on (St. Simons Island).

While he wants to stop large-scale development, he doesnt want to get in the way of individual citizens and projects that are already underway.

Basically, the ask is going to be for a 45-day moratorium for site plan applications, preliminary plats, rezonings, conditional use and special use permits, but I dont want to interfere with building permits, expedited subdivision permits, single family residential permits and land disturbance activity permits, Murphy said.

Murphy cited issues with an application that the Islands Planning Commission was unable to come to a consensus on at its Feb. 21 meeting. Among those issues was the failure to indicate culturally significant fixtures on the map, including a centuries-old family cemetery plot.

(The) facts are, errors and incomplete and inaccurate reports are going up to the level of the IPC, and the only way to right that course is to staff that office at the level it deserves to have, to guarantee the work is of the highest quality possible, Murphy said.

Lack of staffing has been an issue in the planning and zoning office for almost six months now, and Murphy thinks that getting all positions filled should be of the utmost concern to Glynn County.

Either get Ms. Thompson to get out in the state and go meet people or using most of her work day making calls and meeting people that can right this ship, Murphy said. Thats why I want the moratorium so we can be sure the work product coming out of that office is of the quality and nature that we deserve.

The planner and planning manager positions are still empty, and the county entered into a $30,000 contract with Grabowski for another four months in January. According to county manager Alan Ours, Thompson has received applications for the planning manager position and is going through them now, but none for the two planner positions.

Murphy backed a similar initiative when he was commissioner-elect in October. Commissioner Bob Coleman pushed for a 90-day moratorium on all applications to the department, but the effort died due to lack of support from the rest of the commission.

In other business, the commission is scheduled to consider adopting a new strategic plan that will inform policy and development decisions over the next three years, authorize staff to enact a new initiative to combat litter and an amendment to the litter ordinance.

These items are on the agenda for consideration at the Glynn County Commissions meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Old Glynn County Courthouse, 701 G St. in Brunswick.

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