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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

The city of Clanton is set to purchase the Chilton County Commission’s half of currently jointly owned property near Interstate 65, Exit 212.

The commission approved selling the property to the city for $1.8 million during its meeting on Feb. 15. This amount includes purchasing the commission’s portion of the wetland credits that had to be secured to develop the site. The property had been initially jointly purchased in 2016. The project announced for the site in 2019 with the Alabama Farmers Federation later fell through.

Mayor Jeff Mims said in a phone interview on Feb 15 that the deeds were being finalized for the city to take ownership of the full 500 plus acres.

Mims said the city is working well with the county, but it was decided that it would be more beneficial to have one entity owning the land when marketing it for development.

“What we want to do is to try to make something happen out there,” Mims said.

The city is already actively recruiting for the site. Mims said the land needs to be developed in order to use the wetland credits before the credits expire.

Mims said the $1.8 million for purchasing the land would be borrowed, potentially through a five-year loan. Having a five-year loan would allow the city to pay it off from revenue generated from selling portions of the land to developers or tax revenue generated from businesses at the site.