Oakwood City Manager Stan Brown said Monday night he would like to "re-engage" with homeowners in Lake Lanier communities outside the city about a future land-use plan for the area.

He suggested the move to City Council based on the city now having "a group of representatives from those homeowner associations that are aware of what our desires are and what our goals are" for the area.

"I feel like there is some interest out there to do that and even if (the area) doesn't come into the city, if we could work on some standards, it could be that (Hall County) could adopt that same (plan)," Brown said.

The two sides were at odds when Oakwood proposed last month that the Hall County Board of Commissioners allow the city to annex roads that would give the city much-coveted access to the lake.

Residents protested the proposal during a board meeting.
Commissioners responded by voting against the plan, saying they believed it would have denied residents along the roads any say in future council decisions concerning potential property uses off the roads.

City officials were pushing the proposal as an extension of an overall land-use plan as the city might look in 2030, with Lake Lanier access providing "enhanced recreational opportunities."

In a meeting with city officials the night before the vote, some residents in the area realized "that what they were being fed (about Oakwood's move) was not true - that

Oakwood is going to go out there and annex all your properties," Brown told the council.

"But they realized they already had the county commission and they had energized all the neighborhoods to be opposed to us," Brown said.

He said he believes that residents in the area "are more at risk at being in the county as they stand right now than they would be if we at least had some sort of an overlay district that we could work with those landowners to create."

That way, "if they ever did want to come into the city, we would have some design standards that would provide some level of protection," Brown said.

He foresees the city having some kind of public meeting with homeowners about such a plan, possibly taking place in the spring.