The Harlem City Council discussed a memorandum of understanding with Fort Gordon for military compatibility during the work session on Thursday, April 20.
City manager Debra Moore told council members her interpretation of it was that there is an area on the southside of Harlem that, if development were to go there, plans would be presented to Fort Gordon for comment.
“This is really no different than, we’ve had a couple of things with the county recently where someone went for zoning on items that were near the city property lines asking us for comments,” Moore said.
City Attorney Barry Fleming told council members he believed the origin of it comes from Georgia code 36-66-6, which has to do with planning development with land near military installations. He said during the latest round of base closures, Georgia bases did pretty well with remaining open, but the federal government and military put out a list of items they would like states and communities to do.
“One of the things I remember they wanted to do was, for example, Warner Robin when you take off the jets down there, there is an area you fly over,” Fleming said. “The most dangerous part of taking off a jet is right when it takes off; if the engine fails it’s going straight down. There’s a safety run at the end of the runway, but it’s much better if there’s no development going straight out for a certain amount (of distance). That was the kind of thing they wanted notifications off. It you’re about to build an elementary school at the end of the runway, let us know and so I think this is where all of that comes from.”
The council also discussed two ordinances, ordinance 2305 to annex certain properties and ordinance 2306amend chapter 108 land use section 108-77 authority to grant variances and sec. 108-78 appeals of administrative decisions. The council also discussed resolution 2023-07, which is a resolution for the surplus of confiscated property from the police department.
“With this ordinance (2305), these are not full parcels as you can see from the acreage,” said city manager Debra Moore. “(The person) was trying to square up the parcels, these four parcels in the back of Hickory Wood and he purchased these portions of property from these houses that face Hillcrest that are actually county. They never went through the process of getting portions annexed in. So, this is just cleaning all that up because otherwise you would possibly have half the house in the city and half the house in the county.”
During the regular meeting, council members will also consider a proclamation declaring April 30 – May as 54th annual Professional Municipal Clerks Week.
Council members also discussed temporary alcohol permits for two upcoming events, one is the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce after hours networking event at First State Bank on May 15 and the other is the Harlem Merchant’s Association Mimosa’s on Main event on May 6.
Because the Thursday night meeting is a work session, no vote was taken on any item and instead will be voted on during the regular meeting. The Harlem City Council will meet for its regular meeting on Monday, April 24 at 7 p.m. in the Harlem Public Safety Building, 110 W. Milledgeville Road.
