Wednesday, August 24,2022
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 5A
More housing planned
for proposed project
The Dawson
County
Chamber of
Commerce
held a ribbon
cutting for
NGPR at its
office building.
Rio White
Dawson County
News
Ribbon-cutting held for company
with rare home rehab qualification
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
An area developer is now one
step closer to moving forward
with plans to include 152 more
residences in a proposed neigh
borhood along Lee Castleberry
Road, near Ga. 400.
The Dawson County Planning
Commission voted 3-0 on Aug.
16 to recommend approval for a
request to rezone two parcels
totaling 25.35 acres off of the
roadway, which sits between
Stacie Lane and Lumpkin
Campground Road. Planning
commission member Steve
Sanvi was not able to attend and
vote.
The Aug. 16 decision follows
the planning commission’s rec
ommending vote and the Board
of Commissioners’ ultimate
decision this past fall to approve
Stark Land Development’s
requested rezone for a proposed
48 townhomes at the comer of
Stacie Lane and Lee
Castleberry Road. The BOC’s
October vote was a divided 3-1
decision, with District 1
Commissioner Sharon Fausett
opposing the measure.
The proposed development
would include 160 townhomes
and 40 single-family, semi
detached houses, or a total of
200 residential units mixed
together, developer Billy Stark
said at the Aug. 16 meeting.
The proposed rezone from
Residential Agricultural to
Residential Multi-Family would
pin the neighborhood’s overall
density at about six units per
acre, according to planning doc
uments.
Amenities would include a
linear park and sidewalk along
the developer’s side of Lee
Castleberry Road; a central
clubhouse, tennis courts and
pool area; an activity lawn;
pocket parks and a walking
trail. Two access points are
shown on the development’s
conceptual plans.
The sidewalks and linear park
are part of the proposed
improvements on Lee
Castleberry Road between its
intersection with Lumpkin
Campground Road at the newer
roundabout and Ga. 400.
Other planning recommenda
tions include the widening of
Lee Castleberry Road, an east-
bound deceleration lane going
into the development and turn
ing lanes off of the roadway.
Carol Weathers, who lives off
of Lee Castleberry Road, point
ed out during her comments to
the planning commission that
there’s not currently a red light
at the roadway’s intersection
with Ga. 400, making the area
difficult to enter and exit.
“Somebody’s going to get
hurt there sooner or later if
there’s not a light not put in
there, especially with all the
homes and people that are
going to be moving in there,”
Weathers said.
Stark acknowledged public
sentiment about the project
while advocating that his com
pany’s land would be the right
place for it.
“Being on the far south side
of the county and this close to
Ga. 400, we think this is really
smart growth,” he said of the
proposed development. “It’s
surrounded by all of these exact
uses and all of these exact zon-
ings.”
By Rio White
riowhite@dawsonnews.com
On Thursday, Aug. 18, the
Dawson County Chamber of
Commerce held an official
ribbon-cutting ceremony for
North Georgia Roofing &
Property Renovations, a local
business specializing in roof
ing, exterior work, home
remodeling, restoration and
203 K renovations.
A family-run business co
owned and operated by Cody
Freeman and his cousin
Corwin Green, NGPR offers
a variety of home services.
“We pretty much do every
thing from the ground up,”
Freeman said. “If it’s a flood
ed house, the house catches
fire, or a tree falls on the
house ... we do a lot.”
According to Freeman, he
and Green have been in the
home renovation business for
many years and originally
started the company out of
their house over four years
ago.
Since then, their business
has doubled year-over-year
and expanded to the point of
offering services in all or
parts of 18 counties across
north Georgia.
One of their unique servic
es is the 203K renovation,
which is work related to a
federal loan that allows
homebuyers to finance the
rehabilitation of homes that
are foreclosed or in a state of
disrepair.
“We are one of two con
tractors in the whole state of
Georgia that is 203K certi
fied,” Freeman’s sister and
NGPR Operations Manager
Ashley Young said.
Freeman also said that
NGPR operates as a parent
company to NGPR Roofing
& Exteriors and Lanier Home
Builders.
According to the LHB web
site, the company offers ser
vices including home addi
tions, basements, custom
homes and light commercial
work.
The wide range of work
offered by NGPR allows
them to quickly expand their
customer base and get to
know the regional communi
ty, Freeman said.
“We use a lot of local sub
contractors to help us with
the work as well,” Freeman
said. “We’re trying to make
sure we keep everything in
the community as much as
we can.”
NGPR is located at 2806
Dawson Forest Rd E and can
be reached at 770-231-9049.
The company can also be
found on Facebook and
Youtube at NGPR Roofing &
Exteriors, where they have
photos and videos of their
services.
FROM 1A
Rezone
Speaking on behalf of
Fox Creek, Jim Bowersox
said at the July 21 BOC
voting session that that
approach “is not how it
works,” saying the devel
oper’s approach is “an
economic thing.”
“It’s an economic thing
for us too,” said District 2
Commissioner Chris
Gaines at the time.
“If you ask me to go
concurrent with commer
cial [development], I’ll tell
you to turn it down and let
me withdraw, because I
couldn’t do it,” said lead
developer Bill Evans. “If
what we’ve done is not
good enough, I under
stand.”
At the Aug. 18 meeting,
BOC Vice Chair and
District 4 Commissioner
Emory Dooley thanked
his fellow board members,
county staff and the devel
oper for their efforts sur
rounding the proposed
rezone.
“They (Fox Creek) list
ed a lot of the citizens
around that are affected in
that area, and they decided
to work with those citi
zens to take care of what
their wants and needs
were,” Dooley said.
Gaines pointed to
District 3 Commissioner
Tim Satterfield’s previous
comments about the
Development Authority of
Dawson County’s role in
working with Fox Creek
and the county on the pro
posed mixed-use village’s
plans, particularly the
industrial component.
“The developer was try
ing to work with them (the
development authority) as
much as he could to make
sure that we have a bal
anced approach to devel
opment with the commer
cial aspect,” Gaines said.
“That’s important to this
board as we move for
ward.”
Impact fees
The county’s emergency
moratorium on residential
development, enacted in
July and extended earlier
this month, did not apply
to developments like Fox
Creek’s project that were
already going through the
county’s planning and
zoning process.
This temporary pause
on acceptance of new resi
dential rezoning applica
tions was extended until
Nov. 2, 2022, to allow
Dawson County to take
another look at zoning
regulations and impact
fees to see if those are
adequate or need to be
changed.
These fees are imposed
to allow for a project
developer to pay part or
all of the costs associated
with providing public ser
vices (Fire, EMS, etc.) to
the development.
The B oard of
Commissioners approved
a request Thursday to
move forward with the
retention of Ross + associ
ates for $63,700 to do the
impact fee study and pro
vide related deliverables.
Dawson County has
retained Ross + associates
for impact fee consultant
services since 2005.
Planning and
Development Director
Sharon Farrell reiterated
that 2018 was the last time
the impact fee process was
updated. Since then, she
alluded to county growth
as far as the price of land,
level of services, popula
tion and census and in
commercial property.
Farrell predicted
November would be the
timeline for delivery of
“the true bulk of the
work.”
The city of
Dawsonville is also look-
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sultant services for its
own impact fee study.
During its Aug. 15 meet
ing, the city council voted
to reject two bids for
those services.
City Manager Bob Bolz
said the city is in negotia
tions with the Georgia
Mountain Regional
Commission to have the
latter assist in submitting
a proposal and if that
doesn’t happen, the city
will consider re-adver
tising for bids.
“We feel like it’s in the
best interest of these two
companies to go ahead
and reject these two bids
so they’re not just sitting
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