The agenda for Hartwell City Council’s June 4 meeting was notably short, with only a few items to be voted on. However, one topic dominated the evening–zoning, and more specifically, one council member’s nay vote.
Councilman Tray Hicks presided over the meeting in place of Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was absent. Hicks opened by stating that the city made “the highest we’ve ever made in any month” in sales tax in May.
“It cut my property taxes in half this past year, so that’s where that money goes. It helps to offset our property taxes. The way it’s looking now it’ll be even better than it was last year,” Hicks said.
The council reviewed two zoning requests. The first was unanimously approved; while the second still passed, it sparked additional discussion following the vote.
Requested to rezone a parcel of land from R1 single family residential to R1B single family residential, which “allows a little bit of a smaller lot to be built”, according to Jason Ford, Economic and Community Development Director. Ford stated that the goal was to divide the tract into three lots and that at least two, possibly three, houses could be built on it. The Planning & Zoning Board recommended that it be single-family detached housing only; that the houses would keep the neighborhood’s same design; and that development would be pushed to the north side of the property to avoid complications due to infrastructure and topography.
“One of the things I hope we can accomplish in the next year or two is to go in and fix our zoning,” Hicks said.
The council then voted to follow the Planning & Zoning Board’s recommendations, with every member in favor except one. The lone nay vote came from Councilman Richard Sheller. Debbie Henry was in attendance and inquired from the audience about the reason behind Sheller’s vote, saying she was “for it.” Sheller said he would tell her that “privately” and suggested she call him.
“As a representative of the city, I thought maybe that that would be important. It might change some minds,” Henry responded.
Sheller ended the discussion by simply stating, “My vote is my vote.”
Henry and Sheller vied for one of two available city council seats last fall, leading to a Dec. 5 runoff in which Sheller won 63% of the vote. Sheller told The Sun in the weeks before the runoff that he believed the biggest issues facing Hartwell included “housing overgrowth” and “traffic problems.”
The Sun contacted Sheller about his rationale behind the nay vote.
“The race is over with,” Sheller said. “The reason I voted no on that is because, look at the infrastructure and the traffic issues we have in Hartwell. That’s what we need to be focusing on…And I’m just trying to live up to my promise to the people when I ran as a candidate on those issues. Those issues are traffic and annexation and houses–it’s growth. Growth is good, but controlled growth is better. We’ve got infrastructure that needs to be addressed versus these house issues.”
As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sheller stated that Henry had not contacted him to discuss his vote.
As council members ended the meeting with closing remarks, Dan Leard congratulated the winners of the primary election on May 21, in which incumbents secured victories in every contested race in Hart County. (Two races will not be decided until Nov. 5–the race for sheriff between Republican Chris Carroll and independent Tracy Mize, and the Board of Commissioners District One seat between incumbent Republican Michael Bennett and Democrat R.C. Oglesby.)
“I know there’s tension between the city and county sometimes, but…you guys deserve the victory,” he said. “We do this not for the glory, we do it because we want to make sure we’re representing the city and county the best that we can.”
The next Hartwell City Council meeting will be July 1 at 6 p.m.