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The property the city intends to turn into a new parking lot for the city.
The City of Hartwell is under contract to buy land adjacent to the city hall for parking.
At a called meeting on Jan. 14, the council decided to move forward in acquiring a 1.305 acre tract of land from Kenneth and Kay Legg for $225,000.
“As an investor I’m telling you this is a good deal,” council member Tray Hicks said at the meeting when discussing the price.
City manager Jon Herschell said the city is expecting to close on Thursday, Jan. 20. He said it will pay for the property from the general fund.
Herschell described the property as having two parts: the back portion the city has an easement for and the portion along Benson and Carter Street.
“The city has an easement that runs through this property where the back of our entrance off of College Avenue goes through this property,” Herschell said. “We wanted to solidify the ownership of that.”
The other portion will be used for parking.
“We’re going to make that a parking area primarily for the Presbyterian Church because they have limited parking,” Herschell said. “Also it will serve as overflow parking for when we have events and festivals. It’s only a block from downtown which is nice.”
The council thought the proximity of the parking lot to downtown will help alleviate parking issues for people wanting to enjoy Hartwell’s growing downtown scene.
“We need parking there. Its doesn’t seem that far but if we get parking there, we’ll get people that will walk from Depot Street to there,” Hicks said at the meeting.
The lot will also serve as temporary parking while the fire station is being built.
“While construction is going on, the current parking lot is going to basically be a construction area,” Herschell said. “We have to have a place to park while we are doing that.”
Herschell added that the new land acquisition is not expected to change plans for the fire station.
“We are revisiting it. I don’t anticipate it changing it that dramatically,” he said. “We may shift some things back towards the back of our parking lot now. I don’t think it is going to dramatically change the plans.”
The former owners caused a stir in October 2019 when they asked for rezoning of the property to build a theater and event space on the Skelton House property. The Leggs later pulled the request.
Herschell said the city does not have plans to build on the tract, which includes more than half of the Skelton House’s land.
“I don’t think we have any intentions of erecting any structures on the property. There’s some nice green space back there,” Herschell said. “At some point in time it may be a small park or just a green space area. That may be something we do in the future.”