How incorporation could ‘save’ conservative Columbia County
I’m Just Saying by Austin Rhodes
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Big news dropped this week as Columbia County elected officials formally announced there is no plan to move forward with any attempt to incorporate the county, and, in one fell swoop become Georgia’s sixth largest city, bumping Athens to number seven.
County Commission Chairman Doug Duncan said in a prepared statement that despite rumors and unsubstantiated speculation that “incorporation is a done deal”, nothing in the world is further from the truth. The County Commission, he said, is not moving forward with any such plans, nor are Columbia County’s state legislative officials.
So, you can close that book for now, but I caution Columbia County residents and officials, in the strongest possible language, they will be making a big mistake if they don’t reconsider such a plan sooner rather than later.
One of the benefits of incorporating Columbia County is that it freezes the physical growth of Grovetown and Harlem. Theoretically, both or either could begin expansion campaigns that could see them annex property all the way to the county line. The cities are both legally capable of eventually growing large enough to envelop anything in the county that is not already located within the boundaries of their own respective municipalities.
While such dramatic growth is not likely to happen, you can rest assured that Grovetown will soon be led by local politicians that not only have expansion in their sights, but high density housing developments as well.
Hey Riverwood, are you paying attention? Westlake, you awake out there? River Island, you hearing this?
Those “affordable housing developments” that your rock-solid Republican Columbia County Commission recently scuttled – one adjacent to Westlake, the other near the intersection of Hardy McManus and Halali Farm Roads – are very likely to soon be popping up like dandelions as the newly expanding Grovetown and their as-yet-to assume-office future leadership gets down to business.
Current Mayor Gary Jones has repeatedly predicted that he will be the last conservative chief executive ever elected in Grovetown. The November election totals seem to bear that out. While overall Columbia County residents voted a strong 62% in favor of Republican Donald Trump, the voting precincts in Grovetown went the other way, with 61% of the vote going to Democrat Kamala Harris.
Jones has warned for several years that the Grovetown liberals, who have slowly but surely increased in number, are not politically passive. They are, in fact, radical activists who intend to assert themselves and turn Grovetown into their own “urban mecca” encouraging as many subsidized housing projects as they can.
The raw numbers that such developments will attract, combined with the many apartment complexes as they can fit into their expanding territories, will forever turn what was once a rural landscape filled with suburban professionals into a much different place. Ceretta Smith, the Democrat who lost to Mayor Jones by about 100 votes, has already promoted the notion of Grovetown tying into Augusta’s public transit lines. That is a move that county leadership has been fighting against tooth-and-nail for decades.
If Grovetown expands with that kind of political stewardship in place, they will have the population and political power to do every little thing that Atlanta, New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle have done when it comes to housing, public transit, public safety, and “quality of life.”
I don’t mean that in a good way.
There is one way to stop such a thing from occurring. If Columbia County incorporates, Grovetown and Harlem’s physical size will be frozen. The majority of the political power that controls much of the real estate development, and all the county’s major industrial and residential planning, will remain in the decidedly conservative hands of the (still) solidly Republican County Commission.
If Grovetown has the power to expand, they will build housing developments that will attract more lower income voters who, in the South particularly, lean solidly liberal. You can take that to the bank.
There are legitimate fiscal concerns over what collecting franchise fees (a major benefit to county incorporation) will mean when it comes to paying household utility bills. That expense – or benefit when you consider how it would offset property taxes – needs to be thoroughly researched and communicated.
The way I see it, if Columbia County chooses incorporation at this time, conservative leaders can continue to successfully foster upscale growth and development. If Columbia County voters opt to stay the current course, a much different future will be coming our way – straight out of Grovetown.