At the July 19 meeting of the Dawsonville City Council, council members voted to postpone the board's decision on a proposed annexation and rezoning of 70.808 acres of land off Perimeter Road in Dawson County. 

In previous meetings, the Dawsonville Planning Commission and Dawsonville City Council both held public hearings about the annexation and rezoning request. 

The original application, which was first submitted in August of 2020 by Allen Street Properties LLC and B & K Turner LLP, asked for 74.85 acres to be annexed into city limits but was denied by the Dawsonville Planning Commission due to concerns of the annexation creating an unincorporated island of county land inside of the city limits. Because of this, the applicant amended the request to include 70.808 acres of land, eliminating the creation of this island.

The request would annex just over 70 acres of land into city limits and rezone it to allow for the construction of a proposed 124-lot subdivision. In previous public hearings held by both the Dawsonville Planning Commission and the Dawsonville City Council, community members voiced concerns about the request, citing their worries of increased traffic and congestion in the area. 

The Dawsonville City Council was scheduled to vote to either approve or deny the request on July 19, but according to Planning Director David Picklesimer, the applicant requested for the decision to be postponed prior to the meeting. 

“The applicant has made a request to table this decision until October 18, 2021,” Picklesimer told council members. 

City Attorney Kevin Tallant said that the applicants requested the delay in making a decision because they are trying to work together with another property owner to straighten out specific details with the request. 

“The applicant is trying to work something out with another property owner to complete an annexation that would then allow for the entire 70-some-odd parcel to come into the city,” Tallant said. 

Council members voted unanimously, with Council Member Will Illg absent, to postpone the decision until their October 18 meeting. 

Council Member Mark French also voiced concerns about the way the annexation request was originally advertised to the public, asking if a mistake would change anything with the voting process. 

“In looking back at the advertisements when this was initially published in the legal organ, I don’t believe that the parcel number matched up with the publication,” French said. “[The correct one] begins with 093, and we advertised it beginning with 090.” 

Tallant said that, if French is correct about this mistake, the request will have to be advertised again correctly. They will also have to look at the city’s codes to see if the request will have to go back through the Dawsonville Planning Commission before the council can officially vote on it. 

“If that’s correct I do think it would be appropriate certainly to re-advertise,” Talent said. “Whether or not we would need to go back to Planning Commission — I’d like to look at your ordinance to see whether or not I think that’s going to create a problem for the annexation going forward before I give you a final opinion on that.”