Cornelia City Commissioners, with a unanimous vote on Tuesday, Oct. 6, adopted the city’s first comprehensive ordinance regulating development within the city limits.
With the adoption of a new Minimum Development Standards ordinance, a uniform set of guidelines is in place to provide guidance for well-planned and beneficial projects and safeguard the community against slipshod, unsafe, or substandard development projects.
“Anyone that wants to do any kind of new development — it could be commercial or residential — there are now standards they have to meet,” Cornelia City Manager Donald Anderson says.
The ordinance covers all aspects of development, from road construction to water and sewer line installation and everything in between, he adds. “Instead of just going out there and throwing out asphalt for a road, it has to have the compaction and all the minimum requirements,” Anderson says, explaining that the ordinance utilizes known and proven industry standards to provide a baseline for all new development within the city boundaries.
The new Minimum Development Standards — an extensive document of more than 240 pages — replaces two existing city documents, the subdivision regulation in 2005 and the 2007 minimum development policy. “We found there were conflicting statements in each, plus some of the minimum requirements – such as for water line materials — were not up to industry standards,” Anderson says, adding that roads construction is an important part of the ordinance. “Now we no longer have what they call a “private road. If you are building a road, even if you want it to remain private, you are going to have to build it as if you are giving it to the city,” he says, adding that those precautions assure all roads are safe, and in maintainable condition if the city does have to perform maintenance on the roadway at some point.
“Many problems can be created when new development occurs. Therefore, reasonable regulation and control of development is necessary to minimize these problems,” states the ordinance, which lists the following goals as the guiding purpose behind creation and adoption of the ordinance:
- To protect and promote the health, safety and general welfare of the residents of the
City; - To encourage orderly subdivision of land as well as economically sound and stable
land development; - To assure the provision of required streets, utilities, and other facilities and services
to new land developments in conformance with public improvement plans of the City; - To assure adequate provision of safe and convenient traffic access and circulation,
both vehicular and pedestrian, in new land developments, especially for the purposes
of assuring that all building lots will be accessible to fire fighting equipment and other
emergency and service vehicles; - To assure the provision of needed open spaces and building sites in new land
developments through the dedication or reservation of land for recreational,
educational, and other public purposes; - To assure the adequate provision of water supply, storm water drainage, sanitation,
lighting, and other necessary improvements; - To assure equitable review and approval of all subdivision plans by providing
uniform procedures and standards for the subdivider and land developer; - To assure, in general, the wise development of new land areas, in harmony with the
comprehensive plan of the community and the development pattern of neighboring.
A copy of the full ordinance is available at city hall, 181 Larkin Street.
