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On Tuesday, the Troup County Board of Commissioners signed off on an annexation request from the City of Hogansville for the Chisel Mill housing development on Bass Cross Road.

Hogansville received applications to annex and rezone five adjacent parcels totaling approximately 21.17 acres along Bass Cross Road from unincorporated Troup County.

The parcels are currently zoned Single Family Medium Density (SF-MD), and the applicants have requested that the property be rezoned within the City of Hogansville as Corridor Medium Density Residential (CR-MR).

Development has already begun on the housing subdivision, which is expected to be built out in multiple phases.

“There’s a couple of phases of development that are already underway and under construction right now,” County Engineer James Emery said. “They have also designed a second phase of development in this area that has not yet begun construction.”

Commissioner Morris Jones questioned who would be responsible for maintaining the road adjacent to the property on Bass Cross Road.

“According to state law, when annexations happen, the road ownership and maintenance changes. If the city jurisdiction is on both sides of the road, it becomes a city road. If the city jurisdiction is on one side of the road, it’s still a county road,” Emery said. “In this area, [Hogansville] already has city jurisdiction down to Grace Church.

“But in this case, for these five parcels to be annexed into the city, Bass Cross Road will still be city only on one side and county on one side, so it will still be owned and maintained by the county,” he said.

Jones said it causes confusion when cities only annex one side of the road and suggested Hogansville should take both sides.

“It gets confusing. To me, if they were going to annex one side of the road, they ought to annex the other side of the road as well. Of course, it’s up to the landowner if they want to be annexed into the city,” Jones said.

Emery said it’s also possible for the county and the city to enter into an intergovernmental agreement to provide maintenance on the county road, especially in areas where it’s confusing.

Ultimately, the commissioners voted to sign off on annexation but to also request that the entities work out a deal for road maintenance in the area.