If you follow luxury real estate around Lake Oconee, you know that big news often starts in a modest county meeting room. I kept my eyes on the October 13th Greene County Board of Commissioners meeting, where one of the region’s most prestigious enclaves took its next major step forward: the preliminary plat review for The Homesteads, Section VIII.
⚠️ Public Data Disclosure: everything below is drawn from publicly available county planning documents (preliminary plats, final plats, and a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) report) plus the developers' own published materials. These are early-stage documents. Lot counts, acreage, road names, and amenities can and do change before anything is recorded or offered for sale. Nothing here is an offer to sell or a guarantee of what will ultimately be built. Think of it as an informed first look, not a brochure.
As someone who tracks every parcel, custom build, and market shift across Georgia's premier waterfront communities, this approval caught my attention immediately. Here is my inside look at what happened at the meeting, what makes The Homesteads so remarkable, what buyers can expect from this expansion, and why current resale opportunities in the community deserve your immediate focus.
Inside the October 13th Meeting
The applicant, Oconee Land Development Co., presented the preliminary plat for Section VIII of The Homesteads, covering 108 acres.
While many lakefront communities continue to subdivide land into smaller parcels, The Homesteads remains dedicated to low-density, generational preservation:
15 Exclusive Homesites: The plan reserves 102 acres strictly for just 15 residential lots.
Expansive Acreage: The average lot size is 6.81 acres, with individual parcels ranging from 3 acres up to a massive 15.5 acres.
Ultra-Low Density: Under Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning, the density sits at just 0.14 units per acre, leaving open space and natural woodland buffers undisturbed.
New Roads: Infrastructure plans dedicate 4.5 acres of right-of-way to introduce two new residential streets, Whistling Ridge and Gobblers Cove, branching directly off the Hatchers Run corridor. Great street names!
Full Utility Integration: Despite the private, secluded atmosphere, all parcels will connect to underground utilities, including community water and low-pressure sewer managed by Piedmont Water.
What is The Homesteads?
For anyone unfamiliar with Reynolds Lake Oconee, The Homesteads represents the peak of privacy and scale. Situated along the peaceful eastern shores near the Veazey area and bordering the Sandy Creek Sporting Grounds, the enclave spans roughly 1,500 pristine acres.
Historically, luxury buyers around Lake Oconee faced an unavoidable compromise: you could buy an expansive rural tract with total acreage but miss out on resort amenities, or you could purchase within a premier golf club and live on a standard half-acre to two-acre lot.
The Homesteads removed that compromise entirely. It was designed specifically for multi-generational compounds: private family estates where you can construct a grand primary residence, detached guest cottages, private carriage houses, and a personal max dock, all backed by full club and golf privileges.
Living in The Homesteads centers around singular architectural and natural amenities:
The Gathering House: A special clubhouse crafted from glass and native stone that features private owner wine and whiskey lockers, a catering kitchen, fire pits, and an open event lawn.
Boulder Park: A geological landmark some call Georgia's Stonehenge, complete with ancient granite boulders, terraced hillside seating, walking paths, and a stacked-stone stage beside a quiet stream.
Dedicated Team: Rather than standard property management, residents benefit from on-site caretakers who oversee estate monitoring, personal concierge requests, and land stewardship.
What to Expect
With Section VIII moving through the county pipeline, here is what buyers and investors should anticipate across the property:
Site Work and Infrastructure: Initial site preparation and utility trenching will begin along Hatchers Run. Crews will install paved access roads, underground sewer systems, water mains, and electrical connections.
Expansive Lot Profiles: The 15 homesites will average nearly seven acres, with common open space accounting for 1.4 acres. The parcels extending up to 15.5 acres will offer incredible flexibility for compound planning.
Legacy Custom Builds: Because these homesites are substantial, expect custom construction projects featuring private gates, winding driveways, outbuildings, and deep-water docks along the shoreline.
Multi-Year Timelines: Building an estate of this caliber takes thoughtful planning. Between architectural reviews, site engineering, and custom construction, most properties will take two to three years from concept to completion.
Existing Homesteads Homes Are Hitting the Market
While Section VIII represents the next chapter of new construction, an equally compelling opportunity is unfolding right now: completed, custom-built homes in earlier sections of The Homesteads are starting to enter the resale market.
Until recently, securing a property here required purchasing raw land and managing the entire custom build journey from scratch. Navigating architectural review boards, site clearing, and a multi-year construction timeline is not for everyone. Today, select move-in-ready estates along corridors like Rock Fall Loop and Hatchers Run offer a rare shortcut to turnkey lakefront living.
If you are weighing whether to purchase a new homesite to build your custom retreat or step into an exceptional turnkey estate today, you do not have to figure it out alone.
I would love to walk these properties with you, examine the plat maps side by side, and tour the current listings together. Let's schedule your private tour today.
Justin Cullifer
[email protected]
706-817-4426
