County Commissioner's Office

County Talk
By
Lamar Paris - Commissioner 

The website for the new county on-line newsletter is our regular county website located at www.unioncountyga.gov.  Then click on “New Newsletter”.

Q. Was the Great American Clean-up a success?
A. Yes, it was a huge success.  We had around 50 people who came out and helped plant flowers and clean up around the old courthouse square.  It was certainly a team effort with the Chamber, the City of Blairsville, the Commissioner’s office and the Downtown Development Authority all working together to make this happen.  Thanks to everyone who had any part in helping us with the Great American Clean-up.

The next three weeks will be questions that we have received related to development in the county.

Q. I just learned that a development of 63 homes will be built close to my subdivision with a man-made lake.  With the water situation the way it is, how can digging a large man-made lake for exclusive homes be justified? 
A. A lake in the seven acre range is apparently being proposed in the county, but large lakes are permitted by the state Environmental Protection Division and are not part of our permitting process.  However, they are very difficult to have permitted.  They must comply with not only the Environmental Protection Division of DNR at the state level, but must receive approval from the Federal Corp of Engineers.  These include provisions of the safe dam act, protected plants and species studies, archeological studies, wetland studies and mitigation for encroachment in the stream buffer areas.

Mitigation often requires hundreds of thousands of dollars of expense.  So while building a large lake is possible, it is pretty rare that one becomes permitted because of the cost.  If it is in fact permitted, you can usually rely on it being safe and environmentally friendly or at a minimum, environmentally neutral.   

Q. What about the increased traffic on John Smith East and Hwy 19/129 due to a new subdivision? How will this impact our quality of life?
A. There is no question that new homes and subdivisions means that eventually there will be more people.  Fortunately, John Smith East, while much more crowded than it used to be, still has the capacity to handle this development without a lot of strain.  Even 19/129 can handle more cars.  However, 19/129 is an extremely busy and dangerous highway.  I have been working with Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) ever since I was elected to make safety improvements to this highway and to ask that they consider widening this thoroughfare.

After several years, GDOT hopes to begin construction in 2008 on the initial phase of safety improvements by installing a turning lane between Pat Colwell and Pat Haralson intersections, probably the most dangerous area of roadway in the county.  We are also requesting a red light, but have not received any confirmation.  As I recently wrote in my Q & A column, GDOT has also started preliminary engineering plans on widening 19/129 north of Blairsville.  However, this will be a long range project several years out.  However, if I had not started the process several years ago, there would still be no planning on this highway for many years in the future.

Q. What are all these high-priced homes going to do to our property taxes? 
A. After this past year with increased assessments, this should be of concern to everyone.  However, the larger homes tend to have less of an impact on property values than the actual value of the real estate they are sitting on.  Typically, land prices rise more than home prices.  Homes tend to be valued based on typical cost factors per sq. ft., which are directly tied to cost of building materials.  Land on the other hand is valued more on comparable tracts located in the same general area and based on market sales prices.

Naturally, the two are related, but generally a larger home on adjacent property will have less to do with the value of your home than the increases in real estate prices in general in your area of the county.   We are hoping that the current slow down in sales will help stabilize land prices as well as construction cost, which hopefully will slow down higher property assessments required by the state in years to come.

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