Pause will give time for council to plan changes to law
Ellijay City Council members put a moratorium on new short-term rentals in a June 15 vote.
The pause will last 90 days as council members deliberate over potential changes to the city’s short-term rental ordinance.
The council voted unanimously for the moratorium.
The reevaluation of the city’s short-term rental law has followed a series of cases where people have invested in short-term rental properties in Ellijay, believing that they were doing so legally, but discovering that the city’s ordinance only allows short term rentals in districts that also allow hotels.
In one instance, Wraith Leggette and his wife Hillary Leggette bought a property to use for rentals, only to discover it wasn’t legal to do so in a residential district.
On June 15, short-term rental owner Simone Knight made a similar mistake.
The council voted to give the Legettes an exemption, with only Council Member Claudia Penland voting against it.
At the June 15 meeting, Penland and Council Member Al Fuller voted against an exemption, but it still passed.
When listening to the Leggetes’ case, Council Member Thomas Griffith added an agreement to revisit the city’s short term rental law to the motion for the exemption.
Gilmer County law allows short term rentals in residential districts, although neighborhoods and city governments can ban them.
At the meeting, the city council did not discuss what the new rules for short-term rentals might be.
The city council also voted on property and liability insurance.
For its liability policy, the city went with the Georgia Interlocal Risk Management Agency at a cost of $69,561 yearly.
For cyber coverage, the council voted to use Lloyd’s at a cost of $2,830 yearly.
This motion passed unanimously.
In addition, the First Baptist Church of Ellijay asked the city council for permission to install speed bumps on Hipp Street and Sand Street because people drive too fast there.
The church will use its own funds to install the speed bumps, Elder Frank Wilkerson said.
The city council approved the request unanimously on the condition that the church get approval for the speed bumps from Ellijay Police Department (EPD) Chief Edward Lacey.
The city council also considered increasing the percentage of the EPD’s payroll going into retirement accounts from 5 percent to 15 percent.
With this measure, the new cost of retirement payroll would be $172,725 per year.
This change would only contribute to the retirement of full-time employees and would not apply retroactively to employees currently drawing retirement.
Lacey said this measure would help incentivize the department’s employees to stay. Training new law enforcement officers costs a lot of money too.
“A lot of folks that came to us that weren’t married, now they’re married, they have children, they’re making decisions,” he said.
The city council agreed to discuss this possible raise in upcoming budget meetings.