BALDWIN, Ga. — The Baldwin City Council has confirmed receipt of an annexation request from Cook Construction for property near Duncan Bridge Road and Georgia Highway 365 — land that appears to be the same tract involved in a recently failed annexation effort in Cornelia.
Baldwin City Manager Tiera Morrison said the application was submitted at 3:15 p.m. Friday, Jan. 2, and was publicly acknowledged during the City Council’s work session in the interest of transparency.
“Cook Construction submitted their application for annexation, and we wanted to be sure that you guys were made aware of this,” Morrison said. “We wanted to ensure transparency with you guys regarding this.”
Mayor Doug Faust said council members have not yet had time to review or analyze the request, noting the application was first included in the council’s packet for the work session.
“This application was just received Friday at 3:15 p.m., and we haven’t had any time to really review it,” Faust said. “This is the first time council has seen it.”
Faust said the materials submitted largely consist of documentation from the property owners requesting annexation, along with preliminary information outlining proposed uses for the land and expectations for both the applicant and the city.
Faust also confirmed the property is contiguous to land already within Baldwin’s city limits.
“We already have land at that location that is within the city of Baldwin, so this annexation request is contiguous to ours,” he said. “At this point, that’s really all we’re prepared to talk about. We just received this and have not had time to analyze it.”
Faust said the annexation request will undergo further review and public discussion before any action is taken.
“This will be examined much more publicly,” Faust said. “We will ask for public meetings and make sure the community has the opportunity to provide input.”
Faust said the request represents both a potential opportunity for new revenue and job creation and a significant change for the affected area.
“It does represent a substantial opportunity for the city,” he said, “but it’s also a substantial change to that particular area. We’re going to need to know a lot more about it.”
The Baldwin request comes weeks after Cook Construction’s attempt to annex the same property into Cornelia collapsed following a lengthy public hearing. Cornelia later enacted a 180-day pause on new annexation requests.
This is a developing story. Now Habersham has submitted an open records request with the City of Baldwin. Phone calls made to Cook Construction in Gainesville were unreturned at the time of publication.
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