Pickens County directs staff to draft special tax district ordinance, agrees on 85% petition threshold
May 06, 2024 | Pickens County, Georgia
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At a work session the Pickens County Board of Commissioners directed staff to prepare a draft ordinance creating capital improvement special tax districts (CISTDs) modeled on a Dawson County template, with several local modifications.
Unidentified Speaker (S1) proposed splitting administrative duties: routing application intake and administrative tasks to the director of administrative operations (Phil Wood) while leaving field inspection and construction oversight with the public works director. The board accepted this division for inclusion in the draft.
Commissioners discussed Dawson County’s original 75% petition threshold for initial submittal and whether that figure was realistic. After back-and-forth about balancing out-of-state parcel owners and practical petitioning realities, the board instructed staff to prepare the draft using an 85% petition-support threshold (S1: “Plug in an 80 is the first draft… I’ll put 85. That’s fine.”). The draft will return to the board ahead of a public hearing; the board said it will retain final discretion before adoption.
On eligible projects, S1 recommended removing the sanitary-sewer category because Pickens County does not have countywide sewer and because Dawson’s model assumes joint sewer authority structures. The board also agreed not to mandate full-depth reclamation (FDR) for all projects—citing cost concerns—and left final resurfacing method decisions to the public works director and director of administration based on project-specific cost estimates.
Staff will circulate a draft ordinance with the agreed changes and schedule a public hearing once the board has reviewed the draft.
Note: commissioners did not adopt the ordinance at this meeting; they only directed staff to draft the document and schedule a hearing.
Unidentified Speaker (S1) proposed splitting administrative duties: routing application intake and administrative tasks to the director of administrative operations (Phil Wood) while leaving field inspection and construction oversight with the public works director. The board accepted this division for inclusion in the draft.
Commissioners discussed Dawson County’s original 75% petition threshold for initial submittal and whether that figure was realistic. After back-and-forth about balancing out-of-state parcel owners and practical petitioning realities, the board instructed staff to prepare the draft using an 85% petition-support threshold (S1: “Plug in an 80 is the first draft… I’ll put 85. That’s fine.”). The draft will return to the board ahead of a public hearing; the board said it will retain final discretion before adoption.
On eligible projects, S1 recommended removing the sanitary-sewer category because Pickens County does not have countywide sewer and because Dawson’s model assumes joint sewer authority structures. The board also agreed not to mandate full-depth reclamation (FDR) for all projects—citing cost concerns—and left final resurfacing method decisions to the public works director and director of administration based on project-specific cost estimates.
Staff will circulate a draft ordinance with the agreed changes and schedule a public hearing once the board has reviewed the draft.
Note: commissioners did not adopt the ordinance at this meeting; they only directed staff to draft the document and schedule a hearing.
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