County denies request to pull back moratorium

A request to pull back the moratorium that the Hart County Board of Commissioners currently have in place in order to allow for the building of duplex houses was denied Tuesday night during the board’s March 28 regular meeting.

The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to leave the moratorium in place as is until the board has finished crafting an updated subdivision ordinance.

The commissioners originally voted to enact the moratorium, which halted all residential development outside of site-specific, stick-built single family residential homes, mobile homes or modular homes, on July 27, 2021 in order to modify its ordinances regarding subdivisions and multi-family residential developments. The moratorium was originally proposed to last 180 days, however was extended for an additional 120 days on Dec. 14, 2021, then extended until the end of 2022 on June 28, 2022 before being extended again on Dec. 13 for an additional six months. The moratorium was amended and re-amended for six months on Feb. 22, 2022 and is currently set to expire on July 31.

Board chairman Marshall Sayer said the board has been working on a new ordinance.

“I really don’t feel like we have much more to do,” Sayer told The Sun. “We’ve been working on it for several months. We did lay it to the side for a while, but we’re looking at picking it back up on April 11.”

On Thursday, March 16, a Georgia Senate committee looked to expand a bill already passed by the Georgia House of Representatives that would bar local governments from continually renewing moratoriums after an initial 180-day moratorium has expired. The bill would mandate a 180-day break between moratoriums. The original bill that passed the house, sponsored by Rep. Dale Washburn, R-Macon, only restricted moratoriums on single-family housing, however the amended bill would prohibit extended moratoriums on all housing moratoriums.

Sayer said “that would take power from local governments.” The chairman was unsure if the bill, if passed, would affect the county’s current moratorium.

Sayer introduced the idea of potentially amending the moratorium to allow for the building of duplexes.

“I’ve had a constituent of mine to come to me and ask me if they could build duplexes and I said not at the time because we are under a moratorium,” Sayer said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Then he asked if the duplexes could be pulled out of the moratorium. I feel as a responsible board member, I cannot answer that question because there’s four other gentlemen up here and so I told him I would bring it to the board, so here we are.”

District Five Commissioner Joey Dorsey said that he felt the board should hold steady with the moratorium until the commissioners are able to finish constructing the subdivision ordinance.

“We’re entrusted to make decisions and this board has acted in good faith by hearing our constituents and their concerns about growth and managing growth,” Dorsey said. “There’s concerns with growth, I get that, but we as a board have been very transparent with our actions and the language that was put in the moratorium was that we would allow site-specific, stick-built single family residential homes, mobile homes or modular homes with a title, but no duplexes or townhomes. That language is what was in the moratorium.”

Dorsey continued that making the county-wide change for a single person was not the best move for the board.

“I don’t feel like it would be right for us to be able to make a change for one person when others have asked,” he said. “There’s more than one out here and to go and do it because we’ve got one request is not in the best interest of the county. That’s not what we were elected to do. This particular person has not even spoken to me about it and I’m one of the five decision makers. I don’t know why that is…If that’s the direction that we’re going to go, we need to finish that before we start making changes to the moratorium because if you go and lift this tonight and you allow one, you could have a large developer come in here and buy up 300 or 400 acres of land and they’re going to want to do it and you’ll have to let them do it to. What’s fair for one is fair for all.”

Sayer responded that there have been many requests during the moratorium.

“I agree with that Commissioner Dorsey, however, this particular person is not the only one that has asked,” Sayer said. “If you read the documentation here, we get requests almost on a weekly basis.”

After commissioners Frankie Teasley, Michael Bennett and Jeff Brown weighed in on potential stipulations and guidelines they would like to see in place whenever the ordinance on duplexes is made, Charlie Pierce went before the board to present his case for amending the moratorium to allow for the duplexes.

“I have been to the county administration three times since last summer to pull a permit to build a duplex on a lot that I own and I have been told three times that I can’t because it’s under this moratorium,” Pierce said. “...I’m not here asking to build a duplex under Chapter 46 Land Development standards. I have lots that are platted and recorded in the deed book. I’m simply here under Chapter 18 to pull a building permit on a lot that I own. I’m not wanting to develop lots, which is what our current moratorium is under.”

Dorsey answered, saying that the moratorium prohibits duplexes.

“The moratorium specifically says that you can’t do that,” he said. “You can go build a single family residential home, site-specific, stick-built all day long…The reason we’ve done this, Charlie, is there has been so much public outcry about these developments and it started with Mt. Hebron, we all know about that mess up there, and then we’ve had other issues. This room has been rarely packed with standing room only with people wanting us to do something about this growth. That’s why we’ve done this.”

Dorsey referenced the county’s comprehensive plan, which was updated in 2022.

“It will tell you that this multi-family type housing needs to be done around the city of Hartwell,” he said.

Pierce said he feels he should be able to build how he pleases on his own land.

“If we were currently under zoning ordinances, I may or may not be zoned to build what I want to build on a lot, but fortunately for the citizens of Hart County, we don’t have that,” he said. “There is no zoning.”

Pierce said that he feels the moratorium has gone on too long.

“I’ve met the requirements from the health department twice and paid for the permits twice,” Pierce said. “Because when I started this process, they expire after 12 months…Since I tried to pull the initial building permits to start this project, which would already be finished and occupied by now, in just interest alone it’s cost me $720,000.”

Dorsey held firm that the board must finish what they’ve started before lifting the moratorium.

“We need to finish the subdivision ordinance and then we can look at some of this stuff,” Dorsey said. “There’s been a lot of things that have gone on with this board that we’ve had to deal with that’s pulled us away from being able to do this.”

Commissioner Brown said that the board needs to get on with finishing the ordinances needed to end the moratorium.

“My question would be, let’s definitely discuss, but when are we going to discuss it?” Brown said. “...We need to get on our horses, get these laws in place, put some teeth in them and get something together that we can hang our hat on. What hurts me right now is we did that because we had outside influence that were pretty much coming in and had no care for this county. All they worried about was their dollar. Now Charlie and some of these other builders, they’re from here, they grew up here and I hate to see laws that were put into place because of guys that don’t give a rip about this county now affecting folks that want to invest back into the county that they grew up in.”

The board scheduled a work session for April 11, immediately following the regular meeting, to discuss the subdivision ordinance.

“I think the conversation was good. I think we got some insight and I’ll commit to working any night of the week on this,” Sayer said.