DAHLONEGA, Ga.- The City Council heard the concerns of residents over the rezoning application for 60 Skyline Drive at a public hearing on Jan. 18.

The council also heard the proposed budgets for the asphalt leveling and resurfacing of the city streets project and the local maintenance and improvement grant resurfacing project. They also approved a Mayor Pro Tem in a Special Call Meeting that took place after the work session.

Chris Head while explaining the application to the Council.

Don and Chris Head have asked the council to consider a rezoning change for their property at 60 Skyline Drive. The zoning for the property is currently an R1 single-family residential zone. The Heads would like the property to be rezoned to a B1 neighborhood business zone.

The Heads are currently selling the property to a local lawyer for the use of law offices. Some of the citizens that live off of Skyline Drive attended the meeting to voice their concerns with the rezoning of the property.

Chief among those concerns is the possible increase in traffic on Skyline Drive. The solution that they offered was to close off the driveway into Skyline and only use the entrance on North Grove Street. Another concern that was expressed was what would be allowed to move into the space once the law offices were no longer there and the possible noise impact that future business would have on the surrounding areas.

The site plan of the property at 60 Skyline Drive.

The council addressed the concerns and talked over the possibility of closing the entrance into Skyline Drive however they were uncomfortable moving forward with that course with DOT approval. They also explained to the citizens that in order for another business to come in that future business would have to go through a process of approval from the council.

Staff at this time has recommended that the council approve the application for the rezoning of 60 Skyline Drive. To view the application along with the site plans for the project visit https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/dahlonega-pubu/MEET-Packet-80aa5b0863524c56b0d23653b3320d98.pdf. The council will vote on this matter at their next regular meeting on Feb. 7 at 6:00 p.m.

The next item that the council heard was the budget for the asphalt leveling and resurfacing project. The streets involved in the project include Welch Drive, Housely Road, Dogwood Drive, Woodland Hills, Hill Crest Drive, Self Drive, Trahlyta Trail, and Laurel Lane.

The budget for this project is $150,000 based on the required quantity of asphalt needed for the project. This will go out for bid on Feb. 7 and then will come before the council for a vote.

Vince Hunsinger Capital Projects Manager also brought the local maintenance and improvement grant (LMIG) project before the council. This is a project for resurfacing as well and will include North Hall Road and Dalton Drive.

The proposed budget for the project is $110,000.00,  30% of that comes from the City’s general fund and the other 70% comes from the GDOT Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant Program. This will also go out to bid on Feb. 7 and once there is a bid come back to the council for approval.

Council also approved councilmember Ron Larson as the Mayor Pro Tem. This means if Mayor Taylor is not able to attend a meeting Larson takes on the responsibilities of Mayor at the meeting.

The Council and Mayor also made comments regarding the work that the City staff did during Winter Storm Izzy this past weekend. Taylor also gave an update on Dahlonega’s COVID numbers.

Currently, the numbers are up 42% in the last 2 weeks, and in total there have been 446 hospitalizations and 94 deaths since COVID began. To stay up to date on the current COVID numbers and CDC guidelines visit https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home.

“We had a large number of employees and staff who spent literally 24 hours in some cases working on that storm with very little opportunity to get food and drink since all the restaurants were closed, it was definitely a team effort and we are so thankful for them,” praised Taylor.