Gwinnett approves waste station near church

Despite strong protest from a church and business owners, the Gwinnett County Commission voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve a waste transfer station on Shackleford Road.

Commissioner Shirley Lasseter told the audience — almost entirely members of the Holy Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Mission adjacent to the site — that a series of conditions limiting how the property can be used would improve the project’s standing in the community.

But the assurances did not go over well with church members and their supporters, whose protests twice held up the commission’s deliberations. After the vote, some members shouted warnings about the decision coming back to commissioners at election time, while others vowed their fight was not over.

Church members feel the transfer station will endanger children who attend Bible studies and other events at the school and flood their campus with noxious odors and sights. Business owners have similar concerns, arguing the development will reduce property values and make the area harder to redevelop.

Commissioners Bert Nasuti and Mike Beaudreau voted against the project, with Chairman Charles Bannister, Kevin Kenerly and Lasseter casting yes votes.

The property’s owners do not yet have an operator in mind for the transfer station.

Dennis Kelly, project manager with Catholic Church Services Inc., the real estate wing of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, said the church would continue to fight the decision. But he declined to comment when asked if the church would support a potentially costly lawsuit seeking to overturn the commission’s decision.

Blake Dexter of the Dexter Companies, a commercial real estate developer that owns land in the area, said the county’s decision runs counter to everything Gwinnett County has been telling property owners to do.

“They’ve been telling us to upgrade,” he said.

But Bannister said the area needs a transfer station, and it’s going to have neighbors no matter where it would go.

“I will support this for the greater good of the county,” he said.