Board moves to acquire property so road project can move forward

Published 9:36 pm Monday, March 21, 2016

Unable to find any owners of a small piece of property off Fields Avenue, members of the Dalton City Council voted 4-0 to condemn the property Monday night so that the Veterans Drive extension project can go forward.

Mayor Dennis Mock typically votes only in the event of a tie.

Council members agreed to petition Superior Court to condemn 3,243 square feet of land and to provide a temporary construction easement on another 2,607 square feet of land.

“People have died without heirs, the estate isn’t probated and administered, and it’s hard to track down the heirs to establish who owns some of these little slivers of property,” said City Administrator Ty Ross. “Sometimes it’s impossible to find anyone to negotiate a purchase. In those cases, the state of Georgia allows a public condemnation to acquire that land.”

The $5 million extension project, which will extend Veterans Drive to Morris Street, is one of the last projects to be funded from the 2007 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).

Council members also voted 4-0 to amend the city’s building code. Officials said the amendment made no major changes to the code itself but updated the wording to bring it in line with the state building code.