GREENE COUNTY
It was a full house at the Greensboro City Council meeting in Festival Hall Monday night. Two items on the agenda appeared to attract the crowd – a major rezoning request and the future of the Greene County Courthouse building.
Chountelle Hudson representing Bureau Veritas, the company that is contracted by the city to review all planning and zoning requests, presented a proposal from Grind Capital Group. They want to annex and rezone 364 acres of land directly across Main Street (GA Hwy 44) from the former Athens Tech building.
As previously reported by the Lake Oconee News, Grind Capital Group proposes building an “eco-friendly” light industrial park that would include six buildings with a total of 2.66 million square feet of space, 1,065 parking spaces for employees, and 506 spaces for trucks.
The city planning and zoning commission recommended approval of the company’s request to rezone the property from Agricultural (A-1) to Light Industrial (L-1) and annex the land into the city limits. Many developments near the city have been annexed so that developers would have access to city utilities – water, sewer, and gas.
Many attorneys, developers, and other interested parties attended Monday night’s meeting.
This project is a light manufacturing development,” Grind Capital attorney David Ellison told the councilmembers, “And the idea is to bring back many of the jobs that have been sent overseas.”
Ellison said that one of the complaints against the development was potential traffic, especially truck traffic. He pointed out that the L-1 zoning does not allow warehousing and that traffic would be much higher depending on other uses for the property.
Wetlands and flood planes would be protected, he said.
Directly east of the proposed industrial park is a 121-acre parcel on which developer Brett Henderson plans to build 182 residential units. He told the city council he was not happy about the proposed neighbor.
“This development can be beneficial to our county as a whole,” Henderson said, “but at the proposed location it does not meet any of the recreational, cultural, hospitality or retail employment uses that are outlined by the commercial corridor.”
The city council is expected to vote on the rezoning at its next meeting.
The other issue that contributed to the crowd Monday night was the fate of the Greene County Courthouse. The 174-year-old building, which is owned by the county, needs repairs and the county is considering moving all court and legal services to a new building next to the county jail. That’s about a mile and a half away from its current location in downtown Greensboro. City residents and downtown advocates say that will hurt local businesses that depend on the foot traffic that the courthouse brings.
A group of people at the meeting were there to convince the council to approve a resolution opposing the moving of court and legal services out of the courthouse.
Resident Catherine Harris listed all the organizations that have gone on record opposing the move which included the city Historical Preservation Committee, current and past judges, and the 2009 Greensboro City Council.
“As a show of solidarity and support for the individuals and organizations that have made formal resolutions in public, stating their position, it would behoove the city council to do the same,” Harris said.
Harris suggested wording for a resolution. Councilmember Morris Miller emphatically said he supports keeping the courthouse where it is. Mayor Corey Williams said they do not want courthouse services to be moved away but emphasized the decision will be made by the county commission, not the city council.
In the end, the council did not approve a resolution opposing the action but, instead, unanimously approved a statement that they “support a resolution.” Williams said, after the meeting, he thinks that will “probably happen in the next few weeks. Probably.”
Also at Monday night’s city council meeting, Nicole Chillemi, who manages the city-owned Festival Hall, reported that the entertainment venue made a slight profit in the fiscal year ending September 30. She said income during the period was $121,704, primarily from renting the facility and receipt of grants and donations. Expenses were $120,211 with major costs coming from utilities, advertising, and performer fees.
The council approved the annual incentive payment to all city employees. They will receive the equivalent of one week’s salary during the week of Thanksgiving.
City manager Jarvis Sims, who was hired by the city council in May, continues to be on Medical Leave of Absence, according to Mayor Williams. HIPPA laws prevent disclosure of the nature of his illness. Williams told the Lake Oconee News that he (the mayor) is handling some of the operational work. City attorney Barry Fleming wrote in an email to the Lake Oconee News that “the Manager is working from outside the office. We expect (him) to return to working in the office in the next few weeks.”