The Carroll County Board of Commissioners on Dec. 2 unanimously denied a rezoning request for 4 acres at 4169 West Highway 166 that Bobby Morehead proposed to convert from agricultural to commercial to operate a tree service and a small retail outlet.

Ben Skipper of Community Development told the board the planning commission recommended denial 5-0. Skipper and other staff members said the applicant’s stated desire to harvest and process wood — including the use of a portable sawmill — raised questions about appropriate zoning. “If he wanted to run a sawmill, that would require an industrial zoning category,” Skipper said, distinguishing standard tree-service activity (a commercial category) from manufacturing or material-processing operations that the county treats as industrial.

Applicant Bobby Morehead described a family-run operation that currently operates as a home-based tree service and would like to clean up and develop the property, recycle wood into byproducts and, eventually, sell items such as firewood from a small on-site store. “We’ve really been spending the last year trying to clean it up,” Morehead said, adding he had owned the property about one year and that the enterprise employs four people.

Commissioners questioned whether the sawmill activity would be conducted at the proposed site and whether existing home-based licensing covered the proposed change. Staff noted the applicant’s business license remains tied to his home address and that location-specific approval would be required to change that status.

After discussion, a motion to deny the application based on the county’s future land use map, staff recommendation and the planning commission’s unanimous denial was made, seconded and approved 7-0.

What happens next: Staff told the applicant to meet with Community Development to review steps he could take before reapplying. The denial does not affect the applicant’s ability to operate the existing, home-based tree service under current licensing.