GAINESVILLE - Hall County Commissioners Thursday night voted to fight the City of Gainesville in court over its proposed island property annexations without landowner consent.
"I move that the county attorney be authorized to take all administrative or judicial actions necessary to effect the county's objections to the City of Gainesville proposed 'island annexations, to include all zoning, land use, density, infrastructure, voting rights and other federal and state constitutional objections."
That motion from Chairman Tom Oliver followed an hour long hearing filled with comments from upset commercial land owners who looked at a meeting room full of maps displaying the proposed annexation areas.
Attorney Ab Hayes, representing SC-Gainesville LLS, owners of the Big Lots Shopping Center on Browns Bridge Road, said annexation would be devastating to the merchants, already struggling to pay their rent.
"And the addition of $20,000 extra in city taxes would have a devastating effect on those tenants," Hayes said.
Commissioner Ashley Bell cast the lone no vote, saying a court fight would be expensive.
"I'm probably going to vote against spending money to hire another lawyer to fight it when I think the City Council may fix this," Bell said.
City Councilman George Wangemann attended the hearing and said Council was not after tax revenue.
"I think the biggest reason is to clean up the major corridors coming into Gainesville so they look alike on both sides of the road," Wangemann said.
Wangemann said he was against forced annexation and would vote against it; state law allows cities to annex county 'island' properties when the city surrounds them.
State Representative James Mills suggested approaching local legislators with a request to de-annex the properties if the city votes to take them in under state law.
"It would take a majority vote of the local delegation to overturn what has been done here," Mills said. "That might be an option to consider."
Saturday
October 19th, 2024
6:24AM
