Glynn County Commissioners are preparing to adopt updated zoning ordinances after a more than two-year review by a group dominated by developers and real estate agents.
The result, says George Ragsdale, a 74-year-old retired lawyer and member of the Zoning Review Team, is a future for the county that narrowly prioritizes business growth, rather than other community values.
The multiyear, on-again, off-again process, which is likely to conclude this spring with a vote by the county commissioners, illustrates how county residents remain divided, not necessarily on partisan issues, but on the value of environmental priorities and open government.
County commissioners curated membership from a select set of people with expertise in technical issues of zoning that they usually rely on, according to Ragsdale, rather than broaden the viewpoints at the table. When One Hundred Miles President Megan Desrosiers, who has a background in land-use planning, asked to participate, the county denied her request.
Furthermore, she was told that the meetings would be closed to the public.
“Zoning affects every single person living in Glynn County. Builders and real estate agents have an important perspective and should be engaged in the process—but they shouldn’t be the only voices at the table,” the group said in a statement. “The public hasn’t even been informed about who the members of the Zoning Review Team. The lack of transparency makes it challenging, if not impossible, to engage in a meaningful way.”
Robert Ussery, a local architect and member of the working group, said that the group made sincere efforts to find compromise between environmental concerns and development needs, such as decisions on beachfront lighting.
He said that industry professionals were vital decisionmakers because they understand the technical issues better than the general public.
“As an architect, I’ve represented all sorts of people, and I’ve sat on both sides of the desk, but when it comes down to it. I feel like I can represent a lot of people,” said Ussery, 77. “I have the zoning ordinance right here on my desk, and I use it every day.”
The road here
Glynn County’s current ordinance rules were cobbled together in the 1960s. Those zoning laws govern permitted uses for various types of land, how natural resources should be protected during development, the types and sizes of buildings and the preservation of historic landmarks.
Over time, the land changes, as do construction methods and materials, requiring updated approaches to its use.
That’s why, in 2018, an overhaul of the outdated document was a top priority for the county. It hired TSW, a planning and consulting firm based in Atlanta, to prepare an update. The process officially commenced in 2019 but was halted multiple times for various reasons.
The first draft of the new zoning ordinance was released in 2022, and the Board of Commissioners appointed a subcommittee, the Zoning Review Group, to review it. That group included then-Vice Chairman of the Glynn County Commission Walter Rafolski, Neal Boatright, Bill Edgy, Missy Neu, Michael Torras, Bryce Brock, Robert Ussery, Gary Nevill and Ragsdale. That group met in May and June of 2022.
That team was composed almost entirely of industry professionals, with the exception of Ragsdale. Boatright owns a construction company; Edgy is a local business owner and commercial director at Automha America; Neu is a realtor; and Torras is one of the largest developers in Glynn County. Brock owns The Vine and The Park, both on St. Simons; Nevill is a land surveyor; and Ussery is an architect. Commissioner Rafolski also owns Adelaide’s Paint and Décor on St. Simons.
However, the county rejected the 2022 draft, saying it was too technical and that the legal writing was too difficult for the commissioners and the public to understand.
In 2023, Bill Fallon, Glynn County Manager, rebooted the process.
The new working group members were invited by the county, and most had some involvement in the process from the outset.
The county said it did not publicly advertise for volunteers to participate in the group because it was an informal workgroup, rather than a formal government committee.
The county said the 2023 group was meant to simply review and advise staff on potential edits to the zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations drafts. That mandate meant it was not subject to the Georgia Open Meetings Act, unlike the original committee whose work fizzled in 2022.
The current group members include Commissioner Duncan, Commissioner Rafolski, Robert Ussery, Ragsdale, Gary Nevill, Michael Torras, and Missy Neu, as well as the Assistant County Manager, the Planning and Zoning Director, and unnamed planning staff.
Ragsdale said that when the group was reformed in the summer of 2023, it was much larger, but the unwieldy size caused gridlock, with too many voices and opinions. Additionally, group members wanted the consultant’s work product to be redlined against the existing ordinance, but that was not feasible, he said.
The final product
A 232-page draft revised zoning ordinance rules, released to the public on Nov. 3, 2025, had mixed reviews. Some elements, like beachfront lighting restrictions, reflected the views of environmental advocates.
Yet One Hundred Miles has criticized the draft for being tilted towards developers, rather than conservationists, and for ignoring the needs of rural residents of the county.
“It is concerning that many of our planning commissioners seem to be approaching the zoning ordinance purely as a document for people who want to develop Glynn County—when really, it is a tool for people who want to protect their homes and safeguard our quality of life,” said One Hundred Miles.
Ussery, the architect, rejected this criticism. He said the group incorporated suggestions from rural residents and building codes reflect their needs rather than the advocacy group’s positions.
“One of the things, for instance, One Hundred Miles wanted to do was to increase the size of a lot in our forest agriculture districts, I think they were looking for something in the order of five to 10 acres, which is currently at the half acre,” said Ussery. “So, you got to look at that and say, well, gosh, that would be a great idea. But at the same time, you have people who own a lot of that property, in that zone, forest agriculture, that may feel like something was taken away from them, now they wouldn’t be able to have as many lots. Their land wouldn’t be as valuable, necessarily.”
Ragsdale, meanwhile, believes that the group’s bias toward developers doomed an issue he felt strongly about: the construction infill across St. Simons, which is chewing up previously underutilized land.
“So in a lot of places where you used to have one house, all of a sudden you’ve got two. You’ve got more traffic, which is the overall issue for St. Simons,” Ragsdale said.
Ragsdale advocated for an ordinance to prohibit infill. His motion failed. “I think that the membership of the committee tended to influence the outcome of the discussions to some extent,” Ragsdale said.
What happens next?
Dates for the zoning ordinance rewrite are still being finalized. The county doesn’t anticipate presenting a draft to the Board of Commissioners until late March at the earliest.
“Once the full board does approve it, though, consider this: It is a living document, so any time you have ordinances or ordinances in the past, there are changes that are probably going to have to be made. There’s going to be things that we probably missed,” said Fallon at a January town hall. “But over the course of the next six months, we’re going to spend six months trying to identify some of those key things where we want to go back to the board.”
Ussery said that in the end, the county planning staff and county commissioners would have the final say.
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