The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Monday to clarify the commercial zoning designation for approximately 55 acres near the entrance of Lake Harmony, resolving a dispute that has split the community since late 2023.
The board designated the property as C1, a neighborhood commercial zoning classification, following years of uncertainty about what could legally be developed along the community’s main entrance corridor near Oakridge Road.
The land in question is situated at the entrance of Lake Harmony, extending along the eastern border just past the homeowners association clubhouse and the Blue Heron Café.
In 2019, when Jefferson County updated its zoning ordinance, the commercial designation for the Lake Harmony entrance corridor was omitted from the new code. This left existing businesses—including the Blue Heron Café, a real estate agency, and an insurance firm—without a clearly defined zoning status.
Jefferson County planning and zoning attorney David Porter informed the board that the omission was an oversight.
“It’s not a question until it becomes one,” Porter said. “The real issue is, what should this commercial zoning be? I don’t think it should be C2, which is meant for commercial highway districts. Oakridge Road and Willow Lane are not highways. So C1 is the appropriate classification.”
The zoning ambiguity became contentious in late 2023 when Lake Harmony homeowners began to oppose a developer’s proposal to build a gas station and convenience store at the neighborhood’s entrance. Residents filled supervisors’ meetings for months, expressing concerns that such development would lower property values and alter the character of the community.
In April 2024, the developer withdrew the Oakridge Market proposal, but the underlying zoning issue remained unresolved until Monday’s vote.
The outcome did not satisfy all residents. Tom Ellis, a vocal opponent, argued that the board circumvented the formal rezoning process required under the county’s 2019 zoning ordinance.
“I don’t understand how these things get approved, but they do,” Ellis said. “We just want the county to follow its own zoning ordinance.”
Anna Mitchell, president of Lake Harmony Residents Inc., who has overseen the community of nearly 6,000 residents since 1998, disagreed with Ellis’s assessment. She maintained that Lake Harmony was always intended as a mixed-use development and that the board’s decision was simply a clarification, not a rezoning.
“The only mistake was that the county failed to carry the definition of PUD commercial into the new ordinance,” Mitchell said. “But that left a cloud over what is permitted under PUD commercial.”
The board ultimately voted unanimously to approve the C1 designation, though opponents indicated that further challenges may be forthcoming.
