Annexation has been discussed off and on by Milledgeville officials over the years, and it appears city council members are now getting serious about pursuing an expansion of the city’s boundaries. The question is, when will the work begin in earnest to realize that growth?
Milledgeville City Manager Hank Griffeth recently confirmed annexation was among the key topics discussed at a planning retreat in June during the annual Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) convention in Savannah. He said the discussion largely focused on potential areas “ripe” for coming into the city.
“We looked at areas that are ‘low-hanging fruit’ for annexation, for one of two reasons,” Griffeth said. “Number one, they are islands, so city limits are surrounding them, and, number two, they are already getting city water and sewer.
“So, an area that meets one or the other area of those, or possibly both, we kind of see that as our low-hanging fruit.”
Griffeth noted that 100 percent of the residents living at Stonecrest, a community inside the gates at Greystone, have expressed interest in annexation.
“Most of the people there are retirees,” he pointed out, “and they’re interested in having the curbside recycling that the city provides. They also have a lift station that the HOA owns that they want us to take over.”
Griffeth said service delivery negotiations with the county indirectly led to one area of potential growth of the city’s boundaries.
“We saw Log Cabin Road as the dividing line between north and south in terms of annexation,” he explained. “So what we want to do is to be able to annex as much as possible up to Log Cabin Road, on the south side of Log Cabin Road.”
Griffeth listed several targeted areas for the city to at least discuss annexing, including the Allenwood area off Highway 49 and Brookwood off Jefferson Street, both of which have city water and sewer service.
He added that about 35 percent of the Meriwether area off Highway 212 is already in the city, and nearby residents also have expressed interest in annexation.
Other areas listed by Griffeth as part of the annexation discussion include Chase Court, Roberson Mill, Garrett Way, Hammock Road, Jacqueline Terrace, Columbia Street, Wright’s Drive, and one parcel on Greystone Drive.
Included with that list were estimated taxes the city would gain with annexation, based on the 2022 digest. The total revenue for the parcels listed would be an estimated $367,628 annually, with Allenwood accounting for about 30 percent of that at $110,685. Brookwood would net the city a little over $86,000 in additional taxes, and Garrett Way approximately $50,500.
Griffeth noted that former Warner Robins City Attorney Jim Elliott attended a city council meeting earlier this year to explain various methods of annexing property. Warner Robins was extremely successful in its annexation projects while Elliott was the city’s attorney, Griffeth said, and may be asked to assist Milledgeville in its annexation efforts, though not likely this year.
“That’s probably going to be a big project for 2025, probably the entire year,” Griffeth speculated. “We’re going to try to do it like Warner Robins did, a marketing approach.”
In that approach, he explained, those property owners who live in areas targeted for annexation will have the benefits of becoming Milledgeville residents described to them.
Among those are a “zoning and a land use plan, which the county does not have,” Griffeth pointed out. In addition, “curbside pick-up, curbside recycling pick-up, reduction in water and sewer fees, streetlights, quicker emergency response – those are the things that will be marketed,” he said.
“It is my understanding from talking to Jim and others, that in Warner Robins they annexed 92 percent of the property they hoped to annex,” the county manager said. “So, it must work.”
Griffeth said businesses that use a lot of water may also save in taxes when annexed.
“Some of the commercial areas, especially those with big water users, they can actually pay their city taxes based on the savings they are going to have on water and sewer,” Griffeth said. “And with these new water and system user fees, that difference will become even greater in January.”