Development of housing, whether affordable or higher dollar subdivisions, has become a hot-button issue in Gilmer County.
At the regular session of the Gilmer County Board of Commissioners, Chair Charlie Paris decided to address the issue.
“I believe that what is going on in Gilmer County has gone beyond our desire to keep it rural and agricultural, at the rate it’s going,” he said. “If we continue to have the kind of thousands of unit developments coming in, that are proposed and happening right now, we won’t be able to say that is the case.”
Roads in Gilmer County cannot support the increased traffic, he said. One in particular he mentioned was Yukon Road.
“Yukon Road, in my opinion, is already over an acceptable capacity,” Paris said.
At the same time, the county is trying to slow down the density coming in, young folks are looking for affordable housing, he said. Affordable housing was defined as a purchase price under $200,000.
“We need to solve this, but we need to be very careful in how we solve it,” Paris said.
Gilmer County must remain an attractive place to live while providing a quality of life, he said.
“It’s a tightrope we are going to have to walk,” Paris said.
Affordable homes, an estimated 500, need to be scattered across the county, in his opinion. He said the R-3 designation could be used to accomplish the goal with small multi-housing units and “tiny” homes.
This would not dump traffic on one particular road.
Paris said he would not support changing the R-5 designation for more units. The growth must be guided by the comprehensive plan, he said.
Post Commissioner Karleen Ferguson said she agreed with most of what he said. But, she said, the R-3 designation has not worked.
“We went this direction with R-3 and R-4 with triplexes and duplexes, but unfortunately our builders did not take us up on it,” she said.
It is not just the young folks looking for affordable housing, it is also older people and professionals like public safety workers and teachers, and she believes the numbers are much greater.
“I completely want our county to stay rural and agricultural, and in no way huge apartment complexes,” she said.
Pockets of the county would work with an overlay district for building affordable housing, but it could be controlled, Ferguson said.
“It’s a good problem to have,” said Post Commissioner Hubert Parker. “In that everyone wants to come here. Part of the problem is when people come, they don’t want anyone else to come.”
It is a fine line, and it needs to be balanced, he said. The subject will require more discussion and more study.
“You have to have some change or you’re stagnant,” he said. “We need to see if we can manage the growth better. Not control growth, but manage growth better.”
During the citizens comment section of the meeting several people spoke against more development in Gilmer County.
Kimberly Reckles said she is meeting with several groups of people during the week about where the county is going.
“The natives and the newbies are quite unhappy about the overdevelopment,” she said.
Reckles mentioned moratorium on development as something people are discussing. Developers and planning and zoning can have their vision of the future of the county and where subdivisions can go, she said.
“They’re are going to meet with a great amount of resistance from their constituents, because we have had it up to here,” Reckles said.
Brad Simmons offered a differing view. He is not in favor of huge tracts of land being turned into homes, but he wants to see housing for people who make less than $40,000 a year.
“We’ve got to find a happy medium,” he said.
Simmons owns a restaurant and said he has lost employees because they could not find affordable housing. Three employees left over the last six months because the house they were renting was sold as a second home, he said.
Simmons said he raised wages to more than $15 an hour, but it is still not enough.
“Unless you want $25 hamburgers in Gilmer County we’ve got to find a place for these people to live,” he said.
Paris said they are open to any solutions which solve both problems of affordable housing and maintaining an acceptable density in the county.
Other business
- Following a hearing with no public comment, commissioners passed the school millage of 12.624, county maintenance of 6.222 mils and a one mil bond rate.
- Commissioners approved the purchase of a community outreach vehicle for public safety to use with the state health department which can be used in emergencies or for vaccination clinics. Estimated cost of the vehicle is $438,000. Another $20,000 will be spent on cleaning supplies.
- Paris told the board he will be putting together some figures and will be recommending the county hire a full-time project manager to oversee various construction projects in the near future.