2 waste transfer stations sought in Gwinnett

Speculative office buildings are fairly common … at least they used to be. And it’s not all that unusual for a developer to build a strip mall on spec.

But a waste transfer station?

Two of them?

In the same county?

The coincidence has left some wondering whether the applications have anything to do with Gwinnett County’s new garbage-hauling system. In January, homeowners will no longer be allowed to contract with a hauler of their own choosing. Instead, county officials will assign a hauler to homeowners in unincorporated Gwinnett.

County officials announced the haulers on Friday. One hauler will serve the northern part of the county, the other the southern half.

Connie Wiggins, executive director of Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful, the agency tasked by the county to handle the waste management program, said neither of the haulers plans to build a transfer station in the county.

But Chuck Warbington, a county planning commissioner and executive director of the Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District, said he thought the proposals could be related to the new plan.

“I’ve heard of speculative office developments and I’ve heard of speculative housing developments, but I’ve never heard of speculative waste transfer stations,” he said.

The proposed stations, which have not yet been reviewed by Gwinnett planners, would be located in Norcross on Shackleford Road near Beaver Ruin Road and I-85, and on Winder Highway in Dacula.

No one has yet objected to the Dacula station, a 12,500-square-foot facility being proposed by RBD Holdings LLC of Buford Ga.

The Norcross project, though, has generated some opposition from corporate landowners who operate office and warehouse properties adjacent to the proposed site.

The area does have industrial zoning, one of the prerequisites for a waste transfer station, said Thomas Bentley, portfolio manager for Sperry Van Ness Assets. But it’s a less intense industrial category, and most of the space is used for offices and warehouse. One of his company’s properties houses a nursing school.

“It just doesn’t fit the area right there,” he said. “We bought these properties as an investment and we put hundreds of thousands of dollars into beautifying the area. This will decrease property values.”

Neither Lee Tucker, the attorney for the developer seeking to build the Norcross station, nor Jonathan Kendall, the attorney representing RBH Holdings, returned telephone calls seeking comment on the developments.

That company’s proposal gets a hearing with Atlanta Regional Commission staffers on Monday. The Norcross proposal is scheduled to go to the county’s Planning Commission in December.