Easements, Incentives, Covenants, and Restrictions Discussed by IDA

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

In place of its usual meeting on the third Monday of the month, the Industrial Development Authority met on June 5. The IDA’s next meeting will be July 17, during which the authority will amend and vote on the budget for 2023-2024.

Executive Director Evan Stone reported, “I did take a property owner around with a company out of Oregon for Project Sandrock. We toured for about three hours on a couple different properties. It was a very good meeting with the landowner. I’ll work with the company as we go along.”

Having previously decided not to approve easements with Georgia Power, the authority was asked by Stone for permission to work with the power company to allow access to poles.

Stone said, “I got a call from Georgia Power looking for more opportunities to get easements. They will pay. I told them before that y’all were not interested…but that I would ask if we could get a temporary easement.”

Robin Rogers (county attorney) and Stone will work with Georgia Power to either set up temporary easements or a license that would allow access to electrical poles on IDA property that need to be replaced.

Regarding incentives around Trenton Pressing’s upcoming construction, the IDA must complete several steps before construction can begin. Rogers explained that on the IDA’s side, everything will be completed by July 13 at the latest.

Trenton Pressing wanted to move the date up, so the authority is having the validation hearing on June 22 and closing on June 29, as long as everything goes smoothly. Stone noted that Trenton Pressing hopes to complete the construction by the end of this year.

Leisa Cagle asked for a refresher of the incentives. Rogers explained that it is a five-year agreement during which Trenton Pressing will make payments to the IDA in lieu of taxes. He said, “We calculated [the payments] to be between $250,000 and 300,000.” The property will be deeded over to the company after the five years.

The authority then discussed covenants and restrictions for the future Trenton-Dade Business Park. Stone explained three sections of the industrial park: the “new” industrial park is where Vanguard and Trenton Pressing are expanding, while the “old” industrial park encompasses the other industries. He did not specify where the future business park will be. The IDA is purchasing property for this park.

The IDA will look at the covenants and restrictions on the existing industrial park to decide if anything needs to be changed or added before voting on them in July. William Back said that they have looked at covenants used by other Georgia cities when drafting the existing version.

Once approved, the covenants and restrictions will apply to all property currently owned by the IDA and any property purchased in the future until the expiration date.

The IDA entered executive session to discuss real estate.