The Oakwood Planning Commission voted Monday night to recommend that City Council approve annexing parts or all of six city "islands," or unincorporated areas surrounded by the city.

The areas comprise about 60 parcels, said city Planning Director Larry Sparks.

They are located at Oakwood Road and Nellie Drive, Plainview Road and Thurmon Tanner Parkway, Oak Street and Plainview Road, and Mundy Mill Drive and Oakwood Road.

"We just need to bring them in so they can receive city services," Sparks said.

Patti Doss-Luna, assistant city manager, said that some 125 residents would be affected by the move.

The annexations are part of an overall effort to see if people living in these areas would consider annexation as they live so close to the city.

"We sent them a letter telling them what the benefits of annexation were," Sparks said. "It was a volunteer effort, with them saying they wanted to be in (the city)."

Doss-Luna told the planning board, "one person said no. Some didn’t acknowledge us ... and we didn’t press them."

The board, which makes recommendations to the City Council for approval, also gave its thumbs up to two annexation/rezoning applications on Chestnut Drive, off Winder Highway.

The applicants, Nicholas Jay Martin and John T. and Elizabeth Wilson, are seeking a rezoning to a highway business classification from a residential one on a combined 1.1 acres.

The two lots, along with a third one already in the city, would serve as the site for a planned 12,000-square-foot shopping center, Sparks said.

The center would be located next to a site just approved by City Council for a Discovery Point child care center and across the road from a shopping center featuring the newly opened Kroger grocery store.

The planning board also is considering Yolanda Reed’s application to rezone three-quarters of an acre at 3171 Atlanta Highway, near Poplar Springs Road and South Hall Middle School, for "future commercial development."

"They have no site plan (yet)," Sparks said.

The board’s recommendations now go to the City Council, which is set to meet Sept. 9 for its next regular meeting.