OCGA § 32-7-5 Leasing Property Not Needed For Public Road Purposes

• Library: Code of Georgia
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through 2023-2024 Legislative Session Chapter 353 and 2023 Special Session Chapter 5
• Year: 2023
• Citation: OCGA § 32-7-5

(a) In order that any interest in real property acquired for public road or other transportation purposes may be used most economically, the department, counties, or municipalities, in addition to the authority granted in Code Section 32-7-3 to dispose of property no longer needed and in subsection (b) of Code Section 32-3-3 to exchange property, may, notwithstanding Article 2 of Chapter 16 of Title 50, the "State Properties Code," improve, use, maintain, or lease any interest in property acquired for public road or other transportation purposes that is not presently needed for such purposes.

(b) If the department, a county, or municipality decides to lease any such property or interest therein, the owner of such property at the time of its acquisition or his successor in interest shall have the right to lease such property at an appraised fair market value to be determined by the department, county, or municipality for such period of time until the property is needed for public road or other transportation purposes. However, if at the time of acquisition such property was leased to a tenant, the tenant, instead of the owner or his successor in interest, shall have the first right to lease such property at the appraised fair market value. If the owner, his successor in interest, or the tenant of the property does not lease such property, the department, county, or municipality shall have the right to lease such property at a price equal to the highest sealed public bid, if the bid is acceptable to the department, county, or municipality, for such period of time until the property is needed for public road or other transportation purposes. If no bids or bids which are insufficient are received, the department, county, or municipality may readvertise for new public bids. The department, county, or municipality m...

(c) Separate and distinct from the department's authority to lease property in subsection (b) of this Code section, the department has the authority to negotiate a lease of any property contained within the rights of way of any nonlimited-access public road and not presently needed for public road purposes or rights of way under bridges or viaducts on limited-access public roads and not presently needed for public road purposes. If the department decides to lease any such property, the property shall be leased, at an appraised fair market value to be determined by the department, to the owner or the lessee of the property adjacent to the department's rights of way for the purposes of parking. Such property shall only be used for the purposes of providing parking and shall not be subleased without the department's prior approval. Plans for the use of said property must be submitted to and approved by the department prior to any construction. Regardless of any financial expenditures by the lessee, no lease granted under this subsection shall merge into and become a property interest of the lessee or a sublessee. The department shall reserve the right to terminate any lease without cause upon 30 days' written notice to the lessee. Notwithstanding any provisions of Code Section 48-2-17, all net revenues derived from the lease of any of the department's property used for the purposes of providing parking shall be utilized by the department to offset the cost of maintaining the public roads of the state.