Hart County BOC, Hartwell City Council Reach Annexation Agreement

The City of Hartwell and Hart County have come to an agreement regarding a proposed massive new development at the edge of town.

The final agreement between the two governments comes with concessions on the part of Hartwell City fathers.

Last fall, Hartwell filed an annexation request with the County of 270 acres between Fairview Avenue and Liberty Hill Road where developer Kenneth Whitworth planned to build a mixed subdivision consisting of a total of 1,200 homes.

According to the City’s annexation request, 129 acres would be dedicated to single-family housing and 145 acres dedicated to multi-family housing.

However, Hart County Commissioners said that were too many housing units and not enough infrastructure to support them.

The County asked the State to facilitate arbitration but they could not get enough people at the State level to form an arbitration committee.

In a special called executive session last week with the Hartwell City Council and their attorney, the City agreed to cut the number of housing units to a maximum of 650 homes.

At the Board of Commission’s regular meeting afterward, Board Chair Marshal Sayer said State law is on the side of the City.

“I want people to understand that the City held the keys to the door to this whole process,” he said. “They had control of that door and when it could be open. The county could only decide how wide that door could open. That was our function and our purpose. I want to tell the County Commissioners I appreciate all the time they spent on this and I will tell the City Council all the time they spent on this.”

Commissioner Joey Dorsey pointed out that the County must abide by the State laws regarding annexations, even if the citizens don’t like it.

Commissioner Jeff Brown said he appreciated the hard work that went into the negotiations and said the Board’s focus is always on what’s best for the citizens who elected them.

Other parts of the County’s agreement with the City, according to Sayer are an agreement by the City of Hartwell to require the developer to perform additional traffic studies on Parkdale and Liberty Hill Road and to increase the lot sizes on the acreage bordering the County to one and a half acres in order to lower the density.

Additionally, the City of Hartwell has agreed to add more buffers to be built around the Hart County Botanical Gardens and Sacred Heart Catholic Church.