GAINESVILLE – One objection to a municipal annexation is ending but another is about to begin.
Earlier this month Hall County formally objected to an annexation request scheduled to come before the City of Buford in April. That objection is being dropped as the applicant has decided to withdraw his application, but a separate annexation request, just now being considered by the City of Flowery Branch has attracted the attention of Hall County officials and Thursday evening a formal objection to that annexation will be voted on by the Hall County Commission.
At Monday’s county commission work session Hall County Attorney Van Stephens first presented commissioners with a measure doing two things at once:
- adding additional grounds for objection to the letter sent by the county on March 10, 2021, to Buford officials regarding Darryl Crow Holdings, LLC’s, application for annexation of 34.59-acres along McEver Road. This action would officially add to the record supplemental concerns by the county,
- notifying the Georgia Department of Community Affairs that Hall County’s objection was being dropped.
“The City of Buford determined that the applicant would withdraw his annexation application and his rezoning application for right now. They’ve indicated that he may bring it right back at a later time, but this agenda item would ratify the objection and authorize the termination of the annexation dispute resolution process,” Stephens said.
Stephens explained that since the state DCA had become involved in the dispute following the initial objection letter sent on March 10th, and was now being advised that the county’s complaint would no longer require arbitration, a formal letter stating those facts would be required.
Then Stephens presented commissioners with a resolution objecting to the annexation by the City of Flowery Branch two parcels of land, known as 6495 and 6509 McEver Road.
“This is a different annexation, a different city,” Stephens said.
Stephens said the application submitted to Flowery Branch officials was going through the initial stages of consideration by city planners but included 173-townhomes on 25.6-acres, and that conflicted significantly with the county’s land use designation in the Hall County Comprehensive Plan as low-density single family lake-area residential.
And it might create something the county is trying to avoid, Stephens said. “It has the potential to create an unincorporated island in Hall County and that’s one of the reasons for the objection that we will be presenting.”
When contacted later in the day Flowery Branch City Manager Bill Andrew said he was unaware that the county was considering filing an objection to the annexation request. He said the application had been submitted, the county had been notified and that the required annexation signs had been posted on the properties.
“I didn’t know this was even on their agenda,” Andrew said in a telephone interview.
