Following the granting of a conditional use permit for a chicken house, a neighbor challenged the approval on the grounds that the County failed to follow the statutory notice provisions for the required public hearing. Specifically. OCGA §36-66-4(a) provides that notice for public hearings on conditional use permits be published, “[a]t least 15 but not more than 45 days prior to the date of the hearing…” and the county ordinance provided for the same notice. The county published the notice 46 days in advance of the hearing, and the Georgia Appeals Court held that this one day deficit in the timing invalidated the action. The Court did not accept the County’s argument that the 45th day was a Sunday and that therefore the notice was appropriate since when measuring time, State statute provides that the relevant duty goes to the next business day (see, OCGA §1-3-1(d)(3)) because the Court said here, the date of the hearing was set and the County, in essence, had an obligation to count backwards (the Court noted that the hearing itself was not scheduled for a Sunday).
C & H Development, LLC v. Franklin County, 2008 WL 4966221 (Ga. Ct. App. 11/24/2008).
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