Effingham County commissioners unanimously approved Moon River’s master plan for movie studios, paving the way for construction to begin soon on a road and water line.
Commissioners asked that buffer zones at the edges of the project be shown on the drawing, and included a set of 10 conditions on topics including water and sewer service, traffic and zoning.
One of the conditions is to require a right-turn lane and center-turn lane as part of the first phase of development. They were concerned about construction traffic safely accessing the site, which is on a curve on Old River Road near Interstate 16.
The county also set a limit of 10,000 gallons a day for the on-site septic system. Once that capacity is reached, the project developers will have to approach the county with plans for treating additional flow.
C.J. Chance, an engineer with Hussey Gay Bell, told members of the county’s Industrial Development board at their meeting Thursday night that those two conditions were worth noting.
He said the turn lane changes will have to be added to the bids he already has in hand from developers who want to build the entrance road and a water line from the water tower to the build site.
Moon River’s parent company FONU2 is leasing 1,600 acres from the Effingham County IDA and plans to build movie studios and create 527 jobs with an average wage of $46,200.
George Shaw, county zoning administrator, said the Moon River plans will be reviewed soon by the county engineer and by the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation District, before the county will issue a permit to disturb the land.
Chance said construction on the road and water line will begin as soon as that permit is issued.
“We’re very excited to now be at this next stage,” Jake Shapiro, chairman of the board of FONU2, told the IDA. “We’ve laid our plan. We’re just knocking off milestones.”
Shapiro said Phase 1A, which includes two 20,000-square-foot stages, should be completed in April 2016 and Phase 1B, which includes eight more stages and offices, should be done in March 2017.
Shapiro said the company has accomplished two big milestones lately — completing the acquisition of AppleBox Productions and hiring Lexden Capital to raise money through a federal EB-5 program, seeking capital from foreign investors seeking visas.
Shapiro said the acquisiton of AppleBox means Moon River has the equipment needed to make movies, including trucks, lights and generators. The company will use the equipment on its own movie projects and will rent it to other movie makers.