Clarkesville plans to review a variety of items – including parking and a potential change to the city’s charter – at a work session and regular meeting Monday, Oct. 7.
The work session will take place at 5 p.m. at Clarkesville City Hall. The regular meeting will follow at 6 p.m.
Charter change
Clarkesville is looking to make a slight amendment to its city charter. Council members broached the topic during a work session in September after a recent reexamination of the formula by which residents are taxed.
Property is assessed and taxed at 100% of its value in Clarkesville, whereas Habersham County and surrounding municipalities tax property at 40% of its value.
The amendment, if approved, would not change the amount residents pay in taxes. Instead, the purpose is to create a formula for taxation that’s more aligned with the rest of the county.
A fundamental change to the overall structure of the charter would require approval by a majority (as high as ⅔) of Georgia’s legislative body. But Clarkesville’s charter contains a specific rule that enables council to make small changes to single line items.
Clarkesville City Attorney Matt Skilling said a home rule provision in the code allows the city to change the charter under certain circumstances.
“Under these circumstances – as long as a proposed ordinance is published and notice is provided – over a period of 60 days we can have two consecutive meetings where the ordinance is passed,” he said.
Though the millage rate itself would increase if such a change were made, the amount of taxes paid by residents would remain unaffected. In other words, since property would then be taxed at 40% of its value (instead of 100%), a higher millage rate figure would not mean higher tax bills.
“It would push (the rate) above 10 (mills),” City Manager Keith Dickerson said. “It doesn’t affect the end dollar amount residents are being taxed.”
A mill is equal to $1 per $1,000 in taxable property value.
While property is currently assessed and taxed at 100 percent of its value in Clarkesville, Councilman Brad Coppedge said he’s in favor of amending that percentage.
“It’s a numbers game,” Coppedge said. “It comes to the same number. It’s just, when people see it (at 100%), there’s an immediate perception that people think they’re getting charged more…and it was a request to bring us in alignment with the other municipalities.”
The possible change to the city charter will again be considered at a work session Monday, Oct. 7.
Parking policy
At Monday’s work session, Clarkesville’s City Council is also expected to take a look at its parking policy – an effort driven by Councilman Brad Coppedge, who held two public forums and gathered input from the community in September.
Clarkesville has a total of almost 600 parking spaces in and around the city, with about 88 on the square and nearly 500 (off-square) along the perimeter of the downtown area.
“We’re kind of looking at all elements of what’s going on in this community – because we are a growth community,” Coppedge said at a public forum in late September. “Over the next 5-7 years, we’re having a (projected) influx of 17,000 people into Habersham County. You’re not going to stop the growth. We just need to be smart about it.”
Coppedge has described Clarkesville’s parking problem as being closely tied to the long-term health of downtown commerce. And “unless we start figuring this out,” according to Coppedge, “it’s going to continue to be a problem, and then we’re going to see a turnover of businesses.”
Other business
During the regular meeting Monday, city officials will hear monthly reports from department heads, an update on construction of the Mary Street restroom and consider a budget amendment resolution.
