A subdivision with up to 130 homes on Spout Springs Road in South Hall County was given the go-ahead Thursday night by the Hall County Board of Commissioners.
“Thank you for building in Hall County,” Commissioner Billy Powell told Cameron Henderson, president of JH Homes.
“And hooking onto our sewer,” Commissioner Kathy Cooper added.
JH Homes plans to build the subdivision on 53 acres off Quincy Drive near Union Circle.
Commissioners voted to rezone the tract to planned residential development from agricultural/residential.
Their approval was based on several conditions, including reducing the number of lots from 158.
Also, the developer must work with Hall County engineers on the planned Spout Springs widening project.
Spout Springs is one of Hall’s busiest roads, lined with subdivisions, churches and schools. It also is bookended by commercial developments in Braselton and Flowery Branch.
A $60 million project to ease congestion is in the works, but it could be years before construction starts.
Cooper told Henderson the developer may have to help pay for a traffic light study as part of the widening project.
“Then, if there was a need (for a traffic light), there’d be a (shared) cost,” she said.
“The reason we do that is you’re putting the impact on the roads,” Commissioner Scott Gibbs said. “... While we appreciate you developing (there), there is an impact that you’re bringing.”
Speaking after the meeting, Henderson said work wouldn’t start on the subdivision for at least six months.
In other business, the commission delayed until March voting on whether to expand a housing rehabilitation program that would focus more on rundown properties that no one is buying and less on foreclosures.
“That (delay) would give us a chance to look at (the proposal),” Gibbs said.
Since 2009, as part of the federal-grant-funded Neighborhood Stabilization program, 62 foreclosed homes in Hall County have been bought, renovated and sold to low-income families.
Foreclosures were a particular fallout of the Great Recession, but the focus has changed with the economy improving.
With some $900,000 in funding left for the program, officials would target homes in all types of blighted conditions.
The program has drawn fire from some area residents, who said government shouldn’t be in the business of flipping houses.