Haddix served on five-member arbitration panel

He hasn’t even been sworn in as Peachtree City’s mayor yet, and already Don Haddix has recorded a vote against an annexation.

Haddix’s vote, alas, had nothing to do with Peachtree City. It came as part of his service as a volunteer annexation arbitration panel resolving a dispute between governments in north Georgia.

The panel and Haddix were drawn in to rule on a dispute between the city of Oakwood and Hall County. Oakwood wanted to annex five lots from a residential subdivision in the unincorporated county and then rezone those lots from residential to office-institutional use.

Haddix, who served on the panel with four other volunteers, cast the deciding vote in a 3-2 split ruling in favor of Hall County’s position on the matter. The net effect of that decision is that Oakwood’s annexation efforts were denied.

The case involved five residential homes which have previously been occupied and a developer who wanted to change those homes into office uses, Haddix said. Hall County objected to the annexation, claiming the office use was more intense than the county’s existing residential use.

Meanwhile, the community’s homeowners association also argued that the annexation and rezoning would damage home values in their neighborhood, Haddix said.

The developer claimed that it was unable to sell the homes for residential use. However, it was learned that none of the five homes were owner-occupied because they had all been inherited.

For Haddix, the decision came down to a requirement in state law that if the county can prove a significant change in use, the annexation must be denied.

“Plus, Oakwood didn’t even have an argument that their projected land use plan indicated that as office because it wasn’t indicated in their future plan,” Haddix said.