Chattooga County Commissioner Blake Elsberry has defended his new subdivision ordinance that replaced the hastily adopted 2022 Land Use Ordinance.  The commissioner maintains that the new ordinance is more focused in scope and takes care of many of the issues that the old land use ordinance had regarding individual property rights.  A memorandum from the county’s attorney that was sent to County Code Enforcer B.J. Hall and the Chattooga County Planning Commission, indicates that the county attorney believes that the new ordinance will be limited to “subdivision developments, multi-family developments and commercial developments”. 

While County Attorney Chris Corbin’s letter does support the commissioner’s view on the new ordinance, the county attorney and commissioner disagree on whether the new ordinance protects property buyers from fraud.  WZQZ News reported last week that the county attorney said the new ordinance does not prevent fraud.  Commissioner Elsberry replied to that saying, “The county attorney said in his statement the ordinance does not stop fraud. He is accurate in that statement however, the seat belt law does not stop people from not wearing their seat belts, DUI laws do not stop people from drinking and driving, and shoplifting laws do not prevent people from shoplifting. Where the county attorney and I differ in our opinion is I believe this subdivision ordinance is a great deterrent for stopping fraud like we have seen from reoccurring in the future and it definitely gives us the ability to be aware of what’s going on before the process gets too far”.

You can read Attorney Corbin’s memorandum to the Chattooga County Planning Commission below: