Property along the Etowah Valley owned by Little Creek Road Partners and once designated for the Etowah Valley/Canton West master-planned development was not brought up for sale on the Cherokee County courthouse steps March 2.
A South Carolina bank had filed a notice of foreclosure against Little Creek Road Partners (LCRP) in regard to a $2.1 million loan it holds for the 2,341 acres.
The notice said First Citizens Bank and Trust Co. Inc., as successor in interest to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver for Georgian Bank, would sell the land on the courthouse steps on March 2, unless the land-holding company for PEC Development became current on its loan.
However, attorney for First Citizens, Marc Glenn, said March 2 it was not presented. He would not comment further.
Corley said March 3, “We’re still in discussions; we’re still working with First Citizens over this asset.”
Corley has filed two suits in Cherokee County Superior Court, one, in 2008, against the city of Canton for failure to annex parts of his project property, and one, in 2009, against Cherokee County for failure to rezone it.
The proposed project was to be located on an agricultural acreage, made up largely of wilderness along the Etowah River. The master-planned community first was called Canton West and then scaled down and renamed Etowah Valley.
When the concept was first introduced, Canton appeared to be accepting of the plan, but later, after many area residents protested, the city rejected it as being too costly because of the infrastructure that would have to be provided.
A compromise rezoning agreement for the 8 acres already inside Canton city limits submitted by Corley was considered Feb. 4 in executive session, according to Mayor Gene Hobgood.
“It’s still under consideration,” Corley said of his new plan, which is for 8-plus acres with Neighborhood Commercial (NC) on the front and Office and Institutional (O&I) zoning behind that.
Among the contentions made by Little Creek Road Partners in its lawsuit against Canton is that the city’s refusal to rezone 8.6 acres of PEC-owned land as commercial violates the company’s property rights and not annexing 902 acres of county property damaged Canton’s ability to repay $19.2 million dollars in 2005 building authority revenue bonds.
The suit claims that the refusal to annex the property causes the city to take on debt that will be a burden to its citizens and places Canton in peril of losing a favorable bond rating if it defaults.
When the Canton West development was first proposed, it was to have had a four-lane connector, with half the community located in the city and half in the county.
Corley brought the project back before the county as Etowah Valley. That proposal, as well, was turned down by the Cherokee County-Municipal Planning Commission and by the county Board of Commissioners, after both boards heard area residents’ protests against the development.
Corley stated the suit against the county remains in the discovery phase, while he attempts to work out something with Canton.
According to the county Tax Commissioner’s Web site, 2009 tax bills issued to Little Creek Road Partners remain unpaid, but the landowner has until March 10 to pay them without penalty.
