Dawsonville’s city council has agreed to spend about $40,000 to finish the job a developer started at Burts Crossing II subdivision off Hwy. 9 South.

Residents of the subdivision raised $2,000 to offset the cost of paving the top layer of their streets, and council members said the city would take care of the rest.

To prevent developers from failing to finish future projects, the council voted March 1 to pass an ordinance that City Attorney Dana Miles said “will give the city a tool to make sure that infrastructure is completed before other building permits are issued.”

Councilman James Grogan said later that the new ordinance will “hold developers accountable.”

“It’s a protection for people that buy a house in a development,” he said. “The way things have been throughout the whole economy, these builders walk in and then walk out in some instances, showing no responsibility.”

In the case of Burts Crossing II, the top layer of pavement was not poured.

“[The developer] went belly-up on the project, and they didn’t have the funding in place to cover the final phases,” Grogan said.

City Clerk Kim Cornelison said the unfinished roads pose a problem for residents.

“When you go into Burts Crossing II, you have manhole covers that protrude from the ground above where the paving should be,” Cornelison said.

“This is the only neighborhood [in the area] that is completely built out, but never got their top coat of asphalt.”

Matt Fallstrom, a representative of the Burts Crossing II Homeowners Association, gave the city the $2,000 check during the March 1 city council meeting.

“We would like to thank you for bringing us here tonight and putting this proposal forward,” said Fallstrom, who lives in the 34-home community.

Grogan said the situation at Burts Crossing II “wouldn’t have happened had we had [the new ordinance] in place at that point in time.”

“The builder would have been responsible for completing the project,” he said.

“These are citizens of the city, and it’s unfair for them to have this type of problem, so we took care of it.”

The city’s share of the project cost will come out of its general fund reserves. Cornelison said there was enough funding to cover the project.