Two pieces of commercial land sit at the front of Sterling on the Lake, at Spout Springs Road. Since May 7, 2026, a Flowery Branch ordinance has said that neither can become a convenience store, with or without gas pumps. Across the road, a 12-pump food mart was proposed in 2025, and Hall County's planning commission recommended approving it, even though Sterling residents spoke against it. The Board of Commissioners never decided the request. It ended when the applicant withdrew it.
If you're touring homes near the entrance, it's natural to look at an empty lot and ask what will go there. The two city lots and the land across Spout Springs Road are in different jurisdictions.
The Two Lots the City Controls
The Sterling on the Lake master plan sets aside two commercial sites, and both are inside Flowery Branch city limits. Flowery Branch's amended ordinance lists them by Hall County tax parcel:
| Parcel | Approximate size | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 15047 000885E | 7.86 acres | Capitola Farm Road at Spout Springs Road |
| 15047 000885C | 4.17 acres | Spout Springs Road at Lake Sterling Boulevard |
Together that's about 12 acres. The Planned Unit Development ordinances that created Sterling on the Lake, numbers 239-N and 240-N, limit both sites to uses allowed in the city's Neighborhood Shopping district, known as NS. That one link to the NS district explains most of what follows.
Why a 2008 Rule Needed a 2026 Fix
The PUD ordinance was last amended in 2008. At that time, the NS district didn't prohibit convenience stores. The city's zoning code changed after that, and NS now bans convenience stores whether or not they sell fuel. The PUD language stayed as it was. That left an open question about whether a store with gas pumps could use the older rules on Sterling's two lots.
Developers raised that question with the city. The executive summary prepared for the April 16, 2026 council meeting explains how it came up:
"Recently, the Department of Planning and Community Development attended meetings with developers interested in the development of the subject parcels that included convenient stores."
City staff recommended updating the PUD to match the current code. The council took a first read on April 16 and held the public hearing and second read on May 7. According to the May 7 council minutes, Director McCrary presented the amendment, nobody spoke for or against it, and Mayor McClellan closed the hearing at 6:14 p.m. The council approved it 4-0. Council members Chris Mundy, Joseph Mezzanotte, William McDaniel and Pete Lena voted in favor. The Gainesville Times covered the proposal in April under the headline "What's not allowed on commercial lots in front of Sterling on the Lake in Flowery Branch."
The approved amendment applies to both lots.
Uses and Size Limits in the City's Ordinance
The amended ordinance keeps both sites in the NS district and specifically prohibits these uses:
- Bed and breakfast inns
- Institutional residential living and care facilities serving no more than 17 people
- Laboratories
- Live/work units
- Tattoo parlors, massage parlors and body piercing businesses
- Utility company substations
- Convenience stores, with or without gasoline pumps
The NS district also limits scale. Flowery Branch's zoning ordinance describes neighborhood commercial districts as "limited, small-scale commercial uses of a convenience nature serving nearby residential neighborhoods as opposed to a regional market." It says "auto-related, highway-oriented commercial uses are not permitted." It caps each business at 2,500 square feet per tenant space and limits buildings to three stories. The current text and the full table of permitted uses are in the Flowery Branch code on Municode.
Across the Road, Hall County's Rules Apply
That county proposal is at 6495 Spout Springs Road, near Elizabeth Lane, directly across from Sterling on the Lake. The land is in unincorporated Hall County. In 2025, LJA Engineering asked to rezone a 3.05-acre portion of the tract from Agricultural Residential to Highway Business and requested a special use permit for fuel sales.
According to Main Street News, the plan had two freestanding buildings. One was a 6,000-square-foot food mart with 12 fuel pumps, and the other was a 4,500-square-foot building for restaurant space, with entrances on both Spout Springs Road and Elizabeth Lane. Main Street News also reported that six people spoke against it at the April 7, 2025 Hall County Planning Commission hearing, most of them Sterling on the Lake residents. The commission still voted 4-1 to recommend the rezoning and 4-1 to recommend the fuel-sales permit. It rejected, also 4-1, a requested variance from the Gateway Corridor Overlay District's parking design rules.
The Hall County Board of Commissioners tabled the request on May 8, 2025. On July 10, 2025, it voted 5-0 to approve the applicant's withdrawal of both the rezoning and the fuel-sales permit, according to the board's minutes.
Here are the two sides of the road next to each other:
| Sterling on the Lake outparcels | 6495 Spout Springs Road | |
|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | City of Flowery Branch | Unincorporated Hall County |
| Governing rule | Sterling PUD tied to NS district | County zoning, AR-1 at time of request |
| Convenience store with fuel | Prohibited by ordinance since May 7, 2026 | Rezoning and fuel permit were requested |
| Size limit | 2,500 sq ft per tenant space | Proposal included a 6,000 sq ft food mart |
| Latest outcome | Amendment adopted 4-0 | Withdrawal approved 5-0, July 10, 2025 |
The 2025 Request Was Withdrawn
The Board of Commissioners never voted on whether a gas station belonged at 6495 Spout Springs Road. It approved the applicant's request to drop the application, so the planning commission's recommendation never reached a final vote.
Commercial building is continuing elsewhere on the corridor. In May 2026, the Gainesville Times reported that a 10,000-square-foot retail building was under construction next to the Publix-anchored Friendship Springs Village, and tenants hadn't been named at that point. Spout Springs Road is attracting retail, and each piece of land along it follows whichever rules its jurisdiction sets.
Questions About Land Near the Entrance
- Which jurisdiction controls the empty land you can see from the house? Sterling's two outparcels are inside Flowery Branch. Land across Spout Springs Road may be in unincorporated Hall County, so look up the tax parcel instead of relying on the street address.
- What does the current ordinance say about that parcel? For the Sterling lots, the amended Ordinances 239-N and 240-N and the NS district text on Municode set the limits. Flowery Branch posts council agendas and minutes on its CivicClerk portal.
This post is general information about public zoning records, not legal advice. Zoning and land-use questions about a specific property should go to the City of Flowery Branch or Hall County planning staff, or to a real estate attorney.
If you're thinking about a home near Sterling on the Lake's Spout Springs Road entrance and want to know which parcels around it are city land and which are county land before you make an offer, Georgia Real Estate Depot can go through the parcel records and recent council actions with you. Contact Us to start with the lots you can see from the front yard.
