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Interwoven with Lupton City: Mill that was once point of pride now an eyesore
More than a block of abandoned rubble that once stood as Dixie Yarns and later the R.L. Stowe Mill in Lupton City is shameful.
Neighbors in the homes that once were the surrounding "company town" have been staring at this mess for more than a year while nothing else was trucked away by the absentee owners who bought the mill in 2012 for $220,000, scrapped what they wanted, then left the debris.
Now the DG Deconstruction LLC and Lupton City LLC -- both connected to Dockery Group of Peachtree City, Ga. -- owe two years of unpaid property taxes and could face fines of $50 a day, according to City Council member Jerry Mitchell.
We think the city should sock it to them -- and make them complete the debris cleanup now estimated at about $1 million.
One neighbor, who says the Dockery Group told him and a business partner they could buy the land for $1, has asked the city to forgive the $100,000-plus in taxes so he can clean up the blight and develop the property. In essence, it seems as though he's seeking a de facto payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement known as a PILOT but is calling it tax forgiveness, although it's unclear why he could afford $1 million cleanup but not $100,000 for the taxes. The city attorney, however, has said state law won't allow it.
Still, we can see some negotiating possibilities: Perhaps the city and county should just wait and take the land from Dockery in default for the unpaid taxes and fines, designate a greenway right-of-way through the property to extend the North Shore Riverwalk and the Great Eastern Trail.
From there, new development could and should be fast and furious.
Certainly a little city profit would be far better than lost tax revenue from either forgiven fines and taxes or some kind of PILOT-type tax deferral.