Council paves way for annexation with amendment

GAINESVILLE - That controversial island annexation of 115 parcels of county land inside the city of Gainesville will likely proceed next month and Thursday morning City Council agreed to make it less cumbersome.

Council approved a proposed amendment for next Tuesday's consent agenda from City Planner Rusty Ligon which provides a clarification. Ligon said the code requires the city to follow state law for advertising zonings and annexations but the amendment makes it clear.

"We believe it's clear as it stands now but regarding island annexations we decided to make a small change to further clarify that we only need to follow state law in the instance where the city is the applicant," Ligon said.

Mayor Danny Dunagan said the island annexations would proceed sometime in June with the recent arbitration ruling in the city's favor.

"In our ordinance we had to put a sign at every piece of property and the state law does not require that, so we're dropping ours down to mirror the state law so that we won't have to put a sign on all 115 parcels," Dunagan said. "It is proceeding and we will go forward with the island annexations."

ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY ZONE

Council reviewed plans to acquire a second opportunity zone to promote job growth by providing job tax credits in impoverished areas according to city planning director Rusty Ligon. Ligon said the tax credit is $3,500 per job.

"The job tax credit is available to folks who create two or more new jobs to the State of Georgia within one of these zones," Ligon said. "These opportunity zones have to be in places where you've got pervasive poverty and blight and we've identified those areas in the city."

The new zone would include Industrial Park West off Atlanta Highway, and moving north along Atlanta Highway it would also take in Atlas Industrial Park, a portion of Browns Bridge Road and an area near the Lakeshore Mall.

The zone application was presented by Jonathon Gelber of Blakely and Associates Advisory Group, who plans to get State Department of Human Resources approval by the end of this year.

"We would look to do two additional opportunity zones so we would have ultimately four in the city and part of these are in Hall County as well," Ligon added. "It's aimed at creating jobs and increasing the tax base in the city and also redeveloping some blighted properties that are now sitting vacant."