The owner of the now dormant 150-acre Pointe Preserve subdivision on Price Mill Road south of Gober Road near the Morgan County line is asking the county to declare the two roadways inside the subdivision abandoned.
Ned Butler of Walton County, vice president of TMFT Lot Investments LLC, has told the county that TMFT wants to reverse a decision it made on June 6, 2020, when it gave the county easements for Preserve Landing and Pointe Court, roadways within the subdivision.
Preserve Landing intersects with Price Mill Road, giving residents access to that highway, and Pointe Court fronts on 12 of the lots within the subdivision.
Butler told the county in a May 14 letter that TMFT still plans to develop the 36-large lot subdivision, but it now plans to install a private water utility rather than create individual wells for each of the lots. Making the roadway private will facilitate that change, Butler wrote.
County Attorney Daniel Haygood told the Board of Commissioners at its June 24 agenda-setting meeting that the normal process is for the county to publish a public notice that it no longer has any need for the roads.
The commissioners tentatively agreed to move forward with the abandonment process, putting the request on the agenda for its regular July 9 meeting for final approval.
At its short meeting on June 24, the Board also tentatively approved merit and equity salary adjustments for county employees and tentatively awarded of a $270,000 sludge disposal contract for the county’s Calls Creek sewerage treatment plant.
The Board at its June 24 meeting also approved an Indigent Defense Service Agreement stipulating that the county will pay $279,144 in the current Fiscal Year as its budgeted contribution to the operation of the Public Defender Office of the Western Judicial Circuit.
Pointe Preserve
Butler, from TMFT Lot Investments, in his letter to the Oconee County Public Works Department on May 14, noted that the county Water Resources Department “does not currently have infrastructure within a feasible distance to supply water to this subdivision.”
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| Roads In Pointe Preserve To Be Abandoned |
The property is zoned AR-3 (Agricultural Residential Three Acre District), and Butler submitted final plats for the subdivision that were approved by the county on June 2, 2020.
All of the lots are 4 to less than 5 acres in size, with one exception. One lot is shown at 5.7 acres. Total acreage for the subdivision is 157.9 acres.
The final plat indicates that each lot is to have a private well.
Point Preserve subdivision is surrounded by undeveloped land and located just south of and across Gober Road from the historic Hedgerow Farm and just north of and across Price Mill Road from Classic City Clydesdales.
According to county tax records on qPublic, TMFT Lot Investments purchased the undeveloped Point Preserve in 2019 from KJ Land Investments LLC, which had purchased the property in 2015 from GRP Investments LLC.
GRP Investments had purchased the property from Heritage Homes and Properties US in 2013, which had purchased the property from Forward Investments LLC in 2005.
Frank Pittman, of Pittman and Greer Engineering, told the Oconee County Planning Commission in an April rezone hearing for a residential subdivison on Barnett Shoals Road east of Watkinsville that, in his assessment, the market is weak at present in the county for three and four acre lots, with people preferring two acre lots or lots five acres in size or greater.
Salary Adjustments
John Daniell, chair of the Board of Commissioners, said it is normal at the end of the Fiscal Year, which ended on June 30, for the county to use excess funds for salary adjustments.
For the last three years, he said, the county has set aside $50,000 to be divided among those who excel on their annual evaluations. The distribution includes employees of the county and employees of the Constitutional Officers–the Sheriff, the Tax Commissions, and the Clerk of Courts.
This year, Daniell said, 112 individuals received that classification, and $50,000 will be divided up amongst that group.”
“Also the last three years,” Daniell said, “we've done, for full-time employees, $1,000 equity adjustments, and then for part-time employees, $500.”
The total expenditure will be $250,500 for the equity adjustments and $50,000 for the merit payments, Daniell said.
The adjustments will go into effect on July 1, he said, with payment to employees on July 18.
The Board agreed to put this salary change on the consent agenda for the July 8 meeting, meaning it will be approved without further discussion unless one of the commissioners asks that it be pulled from the consent agenda.
Sludge, Other Agenda Items
Water Resources Department Director Adam Layfield told the Board at the June 24 meeting that the price for hauling and disposing of solid waste from the county’s sole water treatment plant at Calls Creek just north of Watkinsville has increased in recent years.
To improve budgeting, he said, the county sought bids, with two providers responding.
Roll-Off Systems of Oconee County, the current provider, was the low bidder, Layfield said.
Layfield recommended awarding a contract for $270,000 for the next five years to Roll-Off. In Fiscal Year 2025, he said, the county spent $229,895 for this service.
The Board put this item on the consent agenda as well.
The Board, at the request of Western Judicial Circuit Public Defender John Donnelly, approved the agreement stipulating that Oconee County will pay $279,144 for his office.
Athens-Clarke County will pay $2,444,4546.
Also on the agenda on Tuesday are three rezone requests for commercial developments on Mars Hill Road, U.S. 441, and Malcom Bridge Road.
The Oconee County Planning Commission has recommended approval of all three requests.
Video
The video below is on the YouTube channel of Oconee County.
The meeting starts at 5:12 in the video.
The Commission voted a little more than seven minutes later, at 12:47, to go into executive session to discuss land acquisition and litigation.
The Board returned from executive session at 1:16:12, or a little more than an hour later, and immediately adjourned without taking any action.
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