TIFTON — The Tift County Board of Commissioners and Tifton Downtown Development Authority have agreed to trade two properties in the hopes of creating a more clean and concise layout of their land.

County commissioners moved to grant a limited warranty deed to the city authority, granting them ownership of the county’s property on Love Lane, and undertook a similar agreement for the Downtown Development Authority’s property on Fourth Street during their Nov. 12 meeting.

Anthony Rowell, county attorney, explained that the parcels each organization owned were not in the most ideal locations for their respective parties, awkwardly jutting out from the rest of the land they each owned.

This agreement to swap properties would create a more contiguous and evenly laid-out collection of properties for the two, giving the Downtown Development Authority access to the area behind the Syd Blackmarr Arts Center and the county a parcel of property near the courthouse, which could be utilized in the future as space for the courthouse annex.

Commissioners voted unanimously in approval of the trade, with the exception of District 5 commissioner Buck Rigdon, who had a conflict of interest due to serving as the Downtown Development Authority’s attorney.