Negotiations are under way this week between residents of Oconee Pointe Subdivision and Northeast Georgia Bank over 10 lots of “greenspace” that could be rezoned into R-1E lots for development.
The Commerce Planning Commission is due to make a decision on the bank’s rezoning request Monday night. It meets at 7:00 in the Commerce Room of the Commerce Civic Center.
The negotiations are the result of the planners’ vote in December to table the request in the hopes that the bank and the subdivision residents could reach an agreement — and perhaps avoid a lawsuit.
The bank seeks the rezoning so it can sell the lots to recover some of the money lost when it foreclosed on developer Daniel Wilson after acquiring the loan as part of the assets from Freedom Bank when Freedom Bank failed. The lots were considered collateral — until the bank tried to sell them and learned they were greenspace.
The residents oppose the development of the lots, even after the bank offered to create an equal amount of greenspace (15.9 acres) elsewhere in the development.
Both sides have threatened to sue if the decision does not go their way.
When the bank acquired the property, it did not know that Wilson had designated the front 10 lots of the subdivision as greenspace when he filed an application for rezoning in 2004. But when the property was annexed, Wilson did not record on the deed that the 10 lots were greenspace.
“We have started talking,” said Northeast Georgia senior vice president Rick Massey. “It is a conversation facilitated by the planning commission.”
Massey said two proposals are being offered, but declined to go into further detail
The only other business on the agenda is the annual election of officers. Joe Leffew and Doug Newcomer are chairman and vice chairman respectively. City planning director David Zellner is the secretary.
