Oglethorpe County has assembled a large stretch of land between the construction and demolition landfill and the Sheriff’s Office over the past two decades.
The county acquired its first tract in 2004 and then added three adjacent parcels in 2016 to create a 534.44-acre block off Buddy Faust Road.
“It was originally bought for economic development purposes back in the day,” said William Brown, chairman of the Economic Development Authority (EDA) and District 4 commissioner. “It was for a light industrial park.”
The industrial park was never pursued, and the site has sat largely unused. Now, the board of commissioners is taking steps to open the area for development.
The board drafted an intergovernmental agreement with the EDA, allowing the authority to market the property and negotiate a sale, which was approved by the board of commissioners 4-1 at their meeting on June 1.
However, Jay Paul, the chairman of the board of commissioners, said he will not sign the agreement as drafted.
“There was some language in there that I didn’t agree with, some errors that were made,” Paul said. “There’s two or three things in there that I just don’t agree with, and I’m not gonna sign it.”
While the EDA will be allowed to negotiate a sale, county leadership maintains final oversight, and any proposed deal will require approval from both the EDA and the commissioners before a buyer can break ground.
The decision follows the first serious offer the county has received for the land.
The site was determined to hold granite, and a company is seeking to establish an aggregate quarry, a type of crushed rock used alongside sand and gravel to produce concrete and asphalt.
Under Georgia law, counties must sell to the highest responsible bidder, either by sealed bids or by auction. However, the EDA has more flexibility.
“The EDA has more tools to negotiate deals, whereas the county doesn’t,” Brown said. “There’s more control on what gets built if you go through the EDA.”
While they have an interested buyer, county leadership is keeping its options open.
“The county is wanting to make sure that we have a fair market value on it, and taking in the potential for granite … we want to make sure we get a good deal,” Paul said. “There’s a lot of details to be considered and worked out.”
There is ongoing discussion about auctioning the land, an approach Paul favors.
“I believe the county will get the best deal possible,” he said. “I want this done in a transparent manner, and again, (in a way) that will map the county the best deal possible.”
District 5 Commissioner Tracy Norman said the board isn’t set on selling all the parcels, which are zoned for agriculture, to a single buyer.
“We may have a company doing one thing, and then a company doing something else,” Norman said.
Beyond a quarry, the land could be used for warehouses, manufacturing sites or parks. Some of the land is also planned for an extension of the county’s construction and demolition landfill.
The county and the EDA don’t want residential development, but seek a business that will require few county services and will yield revenue through taxes.
“We just need to come up with some sort of sales tax or revenue stream that is going to alleviate some of the property tax on the county,” Brown said.
While the exact acreage of a potential sale is still being negotiated, the county expects a quick turnaround from the buyer.
“It’s going to be based more on what the business is, but you would want them to, within six months to a year, to break ground on something,” Norman said.