NEWTON COUNTY – In a considerably unsurprising choice, the Newton County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to oppose a request to annex a possible truck cease web site into the town limits of Social Circle.
Builders with the petroleum and repair station large Jones Petroleum (JP) are looking for to assemble roughly 86,274 sq. toes of buildings at 370 Freeway 11 close to I-20.
In line with a June 12 Improvement of Regional Impression submitting with the Georgia Division of Group Affairs (DCA), the mission outlines a industrial journey middle with a comfort retailer, truck fueling and parking, eating places with drive-thrus, a tire middle, a lodge and three tons for future growth.
In doing so, JP and its building subsidiary JPC Development are looking for to annex the land into Social Circle metropolis limits and rezone the property from agriculture to enterprise and heavy industrial inside the metropolis’s zoning ordinances. At present, the location sits in unincorporated Newton County the place it’s zoned as agriculture.
Nonetheless, this isn’t the primary time that JP has sought to develop this explicit web site.
In 2021, the board of commissioners accepted a conditional use allow that might permit a scaled-down model of the proposed truck cease. This got here after a months-long battle – which included litigation – to develop the location.
The allow allowed JP and JPC Development to construct a comfort middle in addition to three fast-food eating places, however barred in a single day truck parking. District 1 Commissioner Stan Edwards mentioned that he and JP CEO William “Invoice” Jones had reached a compromise throughout a gathering over 4 years in the past.
“Invoice Jones and I… we merely walked away from what I believed, most likely would have been a deal for an settlement,” Edwards mentioned.
However outdoors of timber removing, the location was by no means developed. Now with a proposal again earlier than the board in a a lot grander scale, Edwards mentioned he was “angered” by Jones’ newest transfer.
“I discover it appalling, completely appalling, {that a} citizenry can say, ‘We don’t need that aspect in our neighborhood. We don’t need that aspect in our county,’” Edwards mentioned. “And the residents of Social Circle reached out to me and advised me they didn’t need that aspect in Newton County… I discovered it appalling that an organization, within the identify of the almighty greenback, will say, ‘We don’t care what you need.’
“Even after the citizenry stood up and mentioned, ‘We don’t need it,’ and the commissioners that sit up right here voted the 24-hour truck cease down, Jones Petroleum has advised us to go take a hike.”
District 5 Commissioner LeAnne Lengthy, who was a citizen advocate in opposition to this mission in 2021, shared an analogous sentiment as Edwards.
“I’m simply appalled that we’re coping with this truck cease for the third time,” Lengthy mentioned. “I used to be a citizen that labored very laborious with the board of commissioners to have that truck cease stopped. I had a number of assist from a number of commissioners [and] former commissioners that helped us on that truck cease, and I actually do recognize it. And I don’t need to see it once more.”
Lengthy added that she thought the scaled-down journey middle was “great,” hoping that it’s constructed as a substitute of the truck cease.
The positioning will now go earlier than the Social Circle Planning Fee on July 22 the place it’ll bear a suggestion of whether or not or to not settle for the annexation request. Then it’ll go earlier than the Social Circle Metropolis Council on Aug. 19 for a ultimate verdict from the town. Each conferences will happen at 138 East Hightower Path.
If the town votes to approve the annexation request, it’s seemingly that the case will go earlier than an arbitration panel.
Nonetheless, a web site for a proposed knowledge middle simply north of the property is one other aspect that might play into JP’s annexation hopes.
Earlier this yr, Social Circle Metropolis Legal professional Tony Powell submitted a letter to the DCA alleging {that a} proposed knowledge middle web site positioned at 708 N Freeway 11 was by no means correctly deannexed from the town in 2009. The DCA sided with the town, paving the best way for the Social Circle Metropolis Council to approve a rezoning a particular use allow to be administered to TPA group to permit a nine-building, 2.5 million square-foot knowledge middle web site
Plans for the TPA group-backed knowledge middle have reportedly fallen by way of, although the land nonetheless stays below Social Circle jurisdiction presently.
Newton County has contested the land’s jurisdiction in courtroom, citing that the town has not claimed jurisdiction of the land nor collected property taxes since 2010. Social Circle has since filed to dismiss the lawsuit, during which the case stays pending.
If the land have been to revert to unincorporated Newton County sooner or later, it may spell long-term issues about any type of annexation plans for the proposed truck cease web site as it’s immediately adjoining to the contested land jurisdiction case.
