A former Hall County commissioner is once again looking to run for his former seat.
Former District 3 Commissioner Steve Gailey announced Thursday that he plans to run for the soon-to-be-vacated District 3 seat. The seat is currently held by Gregg Poole, who announced last week that he plans to run for 9th District U.S. Congress in 2026.
Gailey is running as a Republican for the seat. He most recently ran for Commission Chair in 2016, losing to Richard Higgins in the Republican primary.
Gailey served on the commission from 2002 to 2010, and he said he's been troubled by what he's seen from the county government in recent years.
"What I'm looking at is how big our government has gotten. They're not very friendly to the person trying to get a permit or the citizens who have concerns," Gailey said.
Gailey also cited concerns over high-density residential growth becoming more prevalent in the county.
"I'm not anti-growth if it's done wisely," Gailey said. "Some of the densities that I'm seeing on some of these subdivisions that are being built, even on sewer, doesn't make a lot of sense to me. There's already been one big project that's been approved here in the Lula area, and now there's another one up for approval...We need to turn that around and we need to save that sewer capacity for business and industry."
Gailey said while he may not agree with a moratorium, he was disappointed that Poole's motion to deny the rezoning was voted down by the other commissioners.
"A moratorium is a big word, and it can be used very broadly. I think what we've got to do is go back and look at the code and what's being changed that's allowing this type of density," Gailey said. "It kind of astounded me...there's always been kind of the aspect that commissioners respect commissioners' districts from a certain standpoint, even though we all vote on (rezonings), but for Gregg and the chairman (David Gibbs) to vote against that last project...I kind of find that appalling that the other three commissioners voted for it."
Gailey said he does not yet have a campaign website, but offered his cell phone number of 678-316-2448 for those interested in his campaign, as well as his email of [email protected].
