CLERMONT – One of Hall County’s smallest municipalities is having a building boom.
That was the diagnosis offered by longtime Clermont Mayor James Nix at this week’s Joint Municipal Association meeting in Oakwood.
Mayor Nix told representatives from the seven other incorporated municipalities in Hall County, “We’ve got a lot of building going on. We’re issuing building permits, more than we have in many, many, many years.”
Clermont (population 952 according to 2017 U.S. Census estimates) is looking at a double-digit increase in population as building in what Nix termed “a subdivision that lay idle for a few years” is taking off. Only Gillsville (population 243) is smaller than Clermont in Hall County.
Nix explained, “The development that was started back before The Recession kicked in, well, now they’re building in there.” Nix was referring to Wauka Mountain Springs, acre-plus home sites on Ransom Free Road by developer Adams Homes
Nix said Wauka Mountain Springs has 70 or more lots, some with homes already under construction, but that was only the beginning. “They indicated to the clerk (Amy Lomax, Town Clerk) the other day that they thought they’d have maybe thirty-something more permits that they would be looking at in the next several months, and they’ve got twenty or more under construction now.”
Lomax said the following day, “We’ve had a couple of developers come in and they’ve been building a lot of homes over there.”
Nix added that there were also new homes under construction at other sites. “We’ve had a few in some of the other areas that have been built, too.”
Nix knows the secret is out-of-the-bag, that Clermont is a great place to live, and by next year city staff will need to adjust the welcome sign at the city limits proclaiming the town's population. “It’ll be 200 or more, I would say,” Nix said with a smile.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2019/4/788491/growth-comes-quickly-to-clermont