Here is a summary of a meeting held with Blue Ridge officials at Coldwell Banker High Country. Our guests were Mr. Jeff Stewart, who took Roy Parson’s place as head of Zoning, Land Development and Project Management, and Kelsey Ledford, City Clerk. I was not able to attend the meeting, but the following summary was written by Steve Smith, a member of our management team.
- There will soon be a new retail building near Dairy Queen that will house an Aspen Dental and a Starbucks.
- The city has put a bathroom trailer near the train station to provide a more “comfortable” experience to train riders and other downtown visitors.
- The big, carved, wooden bear will be returning to the downtown park area as soon as it is restored and a proper display site is prepared.
- University of North Georgia is expected to annex their new campus into the city, but is not expected in this first phase to build dorms or a cafeteria.
- The city is working on plans to add parking spaces to downtown on or adjacent to the current City Hall. Initially they expect add about 100 spaces on ground level, but are considering a multi-level lot that could add 200 more in the future.
- Printed maps of the city are available at City Hall, but a city map is also found online that is searchable for city street names. See www.cityofblueridgega.gov
- Real estate agents and everyone else are cautioned that the zoning designations shown on the QPublic tax assessor website are very often inaccurate. Contact the city to verify correct city zoning.
- If you have a buyer who is planning to purchase and rezone a property, they should be aware that even with no problems in the process, the length of that process is at least four (4) months.
- The cityscape program will in the near future extend the enhanced sidewalks from our downtown office intersection down to the end of West Main near the Presbyterian Church.