City Council approves condominiums for Alicia Lane site

A new 20-unit condominium development slated for Alicia Lane finally received the green light from the Dahlonega City Council last Tuesday.
The council voted unanimously to approve the proposal, which maintains the property’s current zoning classification as B-2 (Highway Business District) but removes a requirement that it contain a medical office building.
A final vote on the project had been delayed two weeks by the council, after they decided to take additional time to consider the proposal made earlier in the month by developer Squaretail, LLC.
During that period, City staff worked with the developer to tweak the proposed plan and address some of the traffic, aesthetic and safety concerns expressed by the public at the prior meeting.
The changes included reducing the number of entrances to the property from five separate driveways to a single shared access point onto Alicia Lane, and increasing the setback along the boundary line of the neighboring Village at Crown Mountain from 30 to 35 feet.
Another condition of the project requires the developer to obtain a traffic study and implement any recommended safety changes prior to building.
The ordinance also explicitly bans short-term rentals on the property.

VOTING TIME

The January 16 meeting was divided into two parts, with a regular work session being followed immediately by a special called meeting.
With Mayor JoAnne Taylor recovering from a knee replacement, Mayor Pro Tem Roman Gaddis presided over the dual sessions.
After making his way through the items on the agenda, Gaddis reached the public comment portion of the work session.
“Next up, we have comments, and I’m going to defer comments until after our special called meeting,” Gaddis announced.
With that, he brought  the special called meeting to order. When he reached the ordinance related to the Squaretail application, Gaddis gave the floor to City Attorney Doug Parks.
“Mr. Mayor, this is available now for a vote of the council. The public hearing has been concluded. There will be no further evidence given or anything from the applicant or the audience, but it is now available for adoption or other action that the council might desire,” Parks explained.
Gaddis asked if there was a motion from the council.
Councilman Johnny Ariemma motioned to approve the resolution, and Dan Brown seconded.
“Alright, I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?” Gaddis asked the council.

MAKING CHANGES

Ariemma turned to Parks and asked, “We either redistrict it to R-3, or we leave it B-2 contingent on an office medical complex. Why would we do one or the other?”
Parks said staff’s recommendation was to keep the property zoned B-2 and approve the conditions.
“You’ve substituted the new conditions for the old conditions. The old condition was that it would be a medical office building. The new conditions are the ones specified in your ordinance,” he explained.
Gaddis noted that several conditions had been placed in the resolution since it was presented.
“The council listened to many of the concerns and questions from neighbors and citizens, and staff worked with the developer. The developer has agreed that these conditions work for them … So I think we’ve landed on a pretty good spot to get this approved,” he said before asking for further comments.
Ariemma agreed.
“We did indeed listen to a lot of the residents and their concerns, and kudos to the developer for basically taking care of a lot of it. One of the biggest things is we got rid of five entrances, and that was something that was upsetting most people. So we’re down to one point of entry, setbacks are good, we’ve got sidewalk coming in on that road on the curb line. So we listened to everybody and came up with a compromise, and I think it was a good one,” Ariemma said.
He thanked JR Johnson for cooperating with the city on behalf of Squaretail, and said he was looking forward to the development.
“And I will say for those still hating this project, this is far better in terms of the traffic going out on the bypass with 20 townhomes versus people coming and going out of a medical complex all day long,” said Ariemma.
Councilman Lance Bagley noted his approval of the short-term rental ban language, but questioned whether long-term rental rules also needed to be codified in the ordinance.
Parks said condominiums have their own regulations on the number of rentals that are tied to the ability to finance a unit.
“We would not attempt to regulate long-term rentals by a city document. They can do it within their condominium association,” he said.
The council voted unanimously to approve the project, but Gaddis said he is looking for additional information before any future projects are approved.
“I did ask the City Manager to reach out to the school system and have Ms. Head, our Superintendent, or someone on her staff, brief the council on the capacity of the school system and current trends in development. Because as we see more developments coming to Dahlonega, we need to know what our facilities can hold, and what they can’t hold,” he said.
Gaddis said it would be unwise to approve more development than the education system is prepared to handle.  
“So hopefully that [presentation] will be coming to us at a future work session,” he said.
After voting ended, Gaddis proceeded to the comments portion that had been delayed from the work session.
Although he solicited City staff and the council for further comments, Gaddis did not ask if there were any public remarks before gaveling the meeting to a close.