Tentative land swap to provide access to Habersham judicial center

CLARKESVILLE - A tentative land swap could affect the appearance of the new Habersham County Judicial Center in Clarkesville.

On Monday, members of the Habersham County Board of Education heard from Habersham County Commission Chairman Sonny James and Vice Chair Andrea Harper that the county would like to obtain a 1.25-acre parcel with frontage on Washington Street from the BOE in order to create a primary vehicular access route to the planned judicial center facility.

The county plans to construct a new judicial center facility on the old North Habersham school site on Llewellyn Street, currently accessible only from Llewellyn Street and West Stanford Mill Road, which both run off Washington Street.

"What we're considering right now is doing a land swap that wouuld give the county a parcel of land that comes right off Washington Street and goes up to a cleared lot right across from the board of education office," said Habersham County Board of Education Chairman Robert Barron. "This would be so that they have direct access from Washington Street right up to that [judicial center] property. It's actually a piece of property that's T-shaped, with the bottom of the T at Washington Street."

Barron said currently the board of education has not established a value for its parcel.

"The land has not been appraised, so we don't know what kind of figure there is on this," Barron said. "What we're doing in consideration is getting the land appraised, telling the county that they will have this land for whatever it appraises for."

Barron said time is of the essence so that the county's judicial center architect can proceed with design work.

"They needed to know that they were going to get this property, so we said, 'Yes, you can have it for a price to be determined later.'"

Barron said the BOE-owned parcel will allow the new judicial center to be more aesthetically pleasing from Washington Street.

"In order to decide how the front of the building was going to face and what to make it look like, the county needed to know they could have this piece of property," Barron said. "We've not done any official voting, but we have told them by consensus."

He pointed out there is enough room on the parcel for the county to include lighted sidewalks, landscaping and the road.

No money will be exchanged for the parcel, but rather the board of education will, at a future time, select a county-owned parcel to receive in consideration for the T-shaped parcel off Washington Street, Barron said.

"The taxpayers bought the land, whether it's own by the school board or the county commission, so we ought to be able to work something out," said Habersham County Commission Vice Chair Andrea Harper.

Harper said the county currently is looking at the property it owns to see if any might be suitable for the BOE's use.

"We do have some acreage around and we need to look at their future growth," Harper said. "The most important thing was to get some kind of determination on that property off of Washington Street. With that property, we can now have some type of more formal entrance for the judicial center."

Harper praised the land swap discussion process.

"The school board was very cooperative and I'm very pleased with that," Harper said.