AUGUSTA, Ga. – A restaurateur wants to build an Indian restaurant in Columbia County on Furys Ferry Road.
The Columbia County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday is expected to consider a request to rezone properties at 715 and 737 Furys Ferry Road from single-family residential to community commercial.
The two parcels. totaling a little over an acre, sit where Furys Ferry meets Blackstone Camp Road, just past Gospel Water Branch Baptist Church. The property also is near the Village at Furys Ferry commercial strip at Furys Ferry’s intersection with Evans to Locks Road.
The address traditionally has been in Martinez, though several online maps demarcating Columbia County’s ZIP codes suggest the property could be in Evans, or even straddling both communities’ ZIP codes.
The two parties lodging the request are the applicant, Taj of India restaurant, and attorney Wendell E. Johnson Jr., representing the estate of the Rev. Richard M. Taylor Sr.
A 2,700-square-foot house now sits on the property, which was owned by Taylor, who died in 2018 and for a time served as pastor of Gospel Water Branch Baptist, just 300 feet away from the house. His mother owned the property from 1972 to her death in 1986.
Taj of India co-owner Ranjeet Singh said the property “shall be used to construct a dine-in Indian restaurant” in a March 10 email to Realtor Sam Datta.
Taj of India currently is less than two miles down the road in a commercial strip since 2006 near the corner of Furys Ferry and The Pass, where a Bi-Lo supermarket closed in 2019.
The proposed 2,925-square-foot restaurant would offer drive-in access to the parking lot from both Furys Ferry and Blackstone Camp roads, according to a site plan accompanying the zoning application.
The Columbia County Planning Department has recommended approval of the rezoning, with conditions. The parcels will require a sewer main extension for development, since the property is not connected to county sewerage. Also, the maximum front setback requirement would have to be removed to allow the property to be developed.
The Columbia County Board of Commissioners will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Evans Government Complex.
