Habersham County Clears Former Public-Safety Site for Possible Return to Schools

Habersham County commissioners unanimously voted Nov. 20, 2023, to declare the county-owned property at 3116 Demorest-Mt. Airy Highway surplus, ending its immediate role as a proposed location for a fire and EMS headquarters and an E911 site. The tract sits below Demorest Elementary School, and the action followed the county’s conclusion that the site was not feasible for the public-safety facilities it had planned there.

The vote matters because it changes the course of a publicly owned parcel near an elementary campus and puts two local questions on separate tracks. Surplus status may allow the school system to regain property it previously owned, but it does not answer where Habersham County will locate the fire, EMS and emergency-communications facilities that had been envisioned for the tract.

Commissioners had the surplus designation before them on their Nov. 20 agenda. At that meeting, the minutes say the county had purchased the lot from the Board of Education for the planned fire/EMS headquarters and E911 site, then determined the property could not feasibly serve that purpose. That finding led to the proposal to remove the tract from its intended public-safety use rather than continue pursuing those facilities there.

The Board of Education offered to buy the property back at the county’s original purchase price, according to the meeting minutes. County Commissioner Akins told the commission the tract was infeasible for the planned emergency-services use. The commission then approved surplus status by a 5-0 vote, a decision that recognizes the site’s changed status but does not itself settle the school system’s offer or identify an alternative county location.

The completed action is the commission’s approval of the surplus designation. The Board of Education’s buyback offer remains a proposal in the documented account: no sale, deed transfer, purchase agreement, transaction terms or new use for the property is established. Nor does the vote establish a replacement site, cost or timetable for the fire, EMS and E911 facilities formerly planned for 3116 Demorest-Mt. Airy Highway.

Residents should look for a later county agenda item, commission vote, agreement or property record showing whether Habersham County authorized and completed a sale to the Board of Education. Until that public action occurs, it remains undecided whether the tract changed hands, on what terms it might do so, and where the county will pursue the public-safety facilities the site was meant to accommodate.