In a public letter on Thursday, Dawson County officials said that they are confident the city of Dawsonville will deny a 70-acre annexation which has been proposed near the intersection of Perimeter Road and Allen Street. 

The annexation, which was heard by the Dawsonville Planning Commission in November 2020, proposes to rezone the property in order to develop a 124 lot residential subdivision along Perimeter Road, with possible entrances along Perimeter and Turner Drive. 

At Dawsonville Planning Commission public hearings held in September and November, commission members heard from several residents of Turner Drive, who cited concerns about increased traffic the development would cause.

Planning Commission members later voted to deny the annexation and sent it to the Dawsonville City Council for their consideration. 

According to Dawsonville Mayor Mike Eason, a public hearing on the request will be held in June. 

“We’ll be posting signs for a public hearing soon that will be at the end of June, and then we’ll vote on it in July,” Eason said. “We don’t know what the council will do at this point; we need to have the public hearing and see what the Turners say and what the public says.” 

At a special called meeting of the Dawson County Board of Commissioners held on May 11, commissioners unanimously voted to withdraw from arbitration proceedings over the annexation. 

“The sole reason that the County voted to withdraw from the arbitration proceedings is because annexation is certain to occur under that process,” Dawson County Public Affairs Officer Laura Fulcher said in the letter.

According to Fulcher, the arbitration panel appointed by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs is not legally authorized to stop the annexation, regardless of the county’s objections. 

“The Annexation and its intended rezoning would place a substantial financial burden on the County and all taxpayers. The project would result in increased infrastructure demands without the benefit of any developmental impact fees to offset the costs of those demands, including adding additional traffic at the already congested intersection of Perimeter Road and Allen Street.” Fulcher said. “The arbitration panel can only offer conditions to mitigate the effects of the infrastructure burdens and impact the density of the development.”

“The County is confident that the City Council will do the right thing and make a responsible decision for the community by denying the Annexation,” she concluded. 

DCN Reporter Erica Schmidt contributed to this report.