FLOWERY BRANCH - The Flowery Branch City Council approved a rezoning request that could bring a new 137 home subdivision to the South Hall city at their meeting Thursday evening.
The subdivision would sit at the site of the previously undeveloped Park Walk on Jim Crow Road in the North end of the city, and would feature new, two-story cottage-style homes.
National home development company Meritage Homes made the request and wants to use the site to test the new home style. Another company had planned to develop housing on the property in the mid-2000's, but work was stalled by the economic recession just a few years later. Meritage representative Paul Michael said the company was excited to come to Flowery Branch.
"I personally have worked in Hall County on some other projects in the past," Michael said. "We've been looking for an opportunity to bring some of our new product that's in development into the South Hall market."
Michael said the homes would be priced at around $250,000. Some residents raised concerns about the state of the land that the neighborhood will be build on. Rosemary Czysz lives on Jim Crow Road, and said her and her neighbors have had problems with flooding caused by water running off the entrance road to the development.
"Ever since that turn lane has been put (there), everyone on the other side of the street, we get flooded every time it rains," Czysz said.
Representatives from Meritage and Flowery Branch Planning Director John McHenry assured Czysz that the flooding was because the road had not been fully paved, causing water to not run into storm drains. They said that would likely be fixed once development began.
Meritage representatives said construction could begin this fall.
2017 budget approved
The city council also gave unanimous approval to the fiscal year 2017 budget, which includes a full millage rate rollback, at the meeting.
The final budget was just over $9,000,000, but some property owners can expect to see lower tax rates. The millage rate was rolled back from 3.337 to 3.264, a full rollback according to Finance Director Jeremy Perry. The rate is a 2.19% decrease from fiscal year 2016.
Councilman Joe Anglin said he had wavered on approving the budget, since it featured money to be used for the contested new city hall, which Aglin voted against in April.
"I'm kind of at a crossroad," Anglin said. "But what I recognize, especially at this level of government...there's a lot more in this budget than just city hall money...so I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bath water."
The budget goes into effect on July 1.
