Residents and business owners urge council to reconsider fee hikes and housing site

Three residents and business owners addressed the Milledgeville City Council on Aug. 27, 2024, urging caution about proposed development and fee increases.

Mike Thomas, a resident near the North Jefferson/Dunlap Drive corridor, told the council that a proposed housing development in the area should be reconsidered because recent growth has sharply increased traffic and made driveway access difficult. “There’s just a lot of and the volume of the traffic in that area has really increased,” Thomas said, adding that the area’s capacity to absorb more housing needs review.

Matt Rossing, chair of the Milledgeville Baldwin Chamber advocacy committee, focused on two fee‑related ordinances on the council agenda. Citing Georgia law, Rossing said regulatory fees “are not taxes. They cannot be arbitrary,” and argued that any increase — for example, alcohol permit fees he said were moving “from $200 for a beer permit to $800” — must be justified by a study showing the city’s actual regulatory costs and that proceeds be used only to fund that regulatory function.

Benjamin Cook, co‑owner of The Real Grill, asked the council to reconsider any proposal that would raise taxes or fees on local restaurants, saying margins in the industry are “a mere 3 to 5%” and that recent inflationary pressures have been “absolutely catastrophic.”

Council did not respond to individual requests during the public comment period; the mayor reminded speakers the council would listen but generally not engage during three‑minute presentations. Several items tied to those comments — notably the alcohol license fee ordinance and water/sewer rates — were discussed later on the agenda.

Next steps: the council tabled one alcohol‑fee ordinance for additional review and adopted a separate water/sewer fee ordinance (see separate articles for those actions).