The Georgia-Pacific land deal is moving steadily forward after Jackson City Councilmembers tackled a number of major projects at the February meeting on Tuesday.
The complex land sale got one step closer to completion Tuesday with the unanimous passing on first reading of the resolution to adopt a plan of service, an ordinance to annex and a proposed rezoning of a portion of the property.
The property in question—the newly named “Tall Oaks-Freeman” 236.99 acre property—comprises of the combined Tall Oak Farms and Freeman properties, located at Fiberglass Road, Anglin Road, Lower Brownsville Road and State Route 223.
“This (resolution) will just bring all of these properties into city limits,” said Stan Pilant, planning director for the City of Jackson.
The two properties were part of the original land deal proposed in December, which involved the city purchasing three separate property parcels—the Freeman property, the Tall Oak Farms property, a third property—at a total cost of $4.9 million.
The city then combined the Tall Oaks Farms property and the Freeman Property into the “Tall Oaks-Freeman” property for Tuesday’s meeting to rezone it to Light Industrial.
This resolution will go to its second vote at a special-called meeting, which was rescheduled from Thursday to Monday.
If passed, it will then allow the property to enter a final 30-day waiting period before the city combines it with 121 contiguous acres already owned by the city. Once combined, the city will then sell the total 257 acres to Georgia-Pacific for a net profit of $3.86 million.
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“Hopefully that’ll be the last special called meeting for a while,” Conger laughed. “That’ll approve the annexation of the plan approved today, then state law requires a 30-day wait period. So for that the timeline—we need to do it now so we can get the 30 days over in February.
“I’m excited. I think it will be good for the city of Jackson.”
Once the sale is finalized with Georgia-Pacific, the city will use the profit from the sale to purchase another plot of land—“Parcel B”—which is beside the 257 acres.
Total estimated cost for that land is $2,525 million, leaving the city with a total profit of $751,800.
The city will then market the land at $60,000 per acre, according to Mandy White, senior vice president of economic development.
City officials expect Parcel B to sell “very quickly,” due to its strategic location, with an estimated minimum price tag of $3 million.
While the deal as a whole marks a major economic boon for the city, not everyone is convinced of the long-term benefits.
Bob Ingram, a local property owner and Jackson resident, spoke at Tuesday’s city council meeting, urging caution regarding overzealous development.
“I’ve been traveling all over the United States for several years,” he said. “Agricultural land is under unprecedented pressure for development across our nation. I’m not here to say no to anything you guys want to do—that’s great, you bought the property—but I would like you to consider one thing.
“I sat down at a family gathering in Huntsville, and I looked over at my cousin, and I asked him ‘What are you guys going to eat?’ and he looked at me like I was stupid. But from I-65 all the way into Madison (Ala.), it’s new development where it was cornfields.”
Ingram emphasized that the land sale would be taking away “prime agricultural land” from local farmers.
“Our great nation is going to need to be fed,” he said. “The soils that you’re about to develop took millions of years to develop on that plateau. It’s prime agricultural ground. I’d like to see you guys consider—in further development—taking into consideration the soils that you’re developing, and have somebody on your team that has an agricultural background to maybe steer you away from prime agricultural grounds.
“Our nation needs to be fed. And it’s getting harder for the farmer every year.”
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