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DEL.ICIO.USDevelopment has no rhyme or reason
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you need a prescription filled, pharmacies along a short stretch of Lawrenceville Highway aim to please.
A Walgreens is under construction at the corner of Beaver Ruin Road and Lawrenceville Highway. Just three miles west sits another Walgreens at the juncture of Rockbridge Road and Lawrenceville Highway. And a little farther down the road a CVS Pharmacy operates.
If there’s a rhyme or reason to all this, I’m at wits’ end. Then again, this is Gwinnett, where, when it comes to land use and development, we pull up short on common sense and balance.
When it comes to building, practically anything goes.
Drive around.
It’s not unusual to see an existing strip mall with plenty of space to lease. Yet across the street, or right next door, another complex is going up. When it’s complete, it will offer more of the same: nail salons, wing joints and dry cleaners. On Duluth Highway at Boggs Road, a cleaners is opening up even though two more are within a block of it in either direction. Typical. Unimaginative. Maddening, yet oh-so-common.
Now we have a situation in Duluth where residents oppose a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter. The big-box store would be located on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, near the intersections of Sugarloaf Parkway and Chattahoochee Drive. Opponents say two Wal-Marts already exist within eight miles of the site in question. The company, though, says there’s a demand for a third store. That’s a lot of Wal-Marts.
Residents, understandably, are spitting mad.
They attended a meeting of Duluth’s Zoning Board of Appeals on Wednesday night to voice their dismay. Wal-Mart — which had withdrawn a request for variances from city designs — wasn’t even on the agenda.
But here’s the rub, and it partially explains why we now have these residents waging war against a retail giant.
The site that Wal-Mart wants to build its superstore on has been zoned commercial for several years. Somewhere down the line, though, city leaders saw fit to “down zone” that designation so that houses could be built in the area. In essence, their decision allowed residential construction to encroach upon an area that had originally been zoned for light industrial use, until its most recent designation as a commercial corridor.
And that’s classic Gwinnett, the spot zoning/rezoning capitol. Sense of balance is a misnomer. Development just happens with scant rhyme or reason. It’s why we are inundated with cookie-cutter strip malls and stand-alone stores that appear inconsistent with their surroundings.
And why we have so many pharmacies within a short stretch of Lawrenceville Highway.
— Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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By Michael H. Smith
August 26, 2007 5:08 PM | Link to this
Face it Mr. Badie, America is an “addict nation”. As for development, money serves as both rhyme and reason.
Now ask our state elected officials or even our county commissioners would they support a state concurrency law?
Oh and don’t forget, political hunting season is just around the corner - red shirt brigade.
By Bruce Wilcox
August 26, 2007 9:32 PM | Link to this
The Wal-Marts, Walgreens, CVS’s are big time chains all, they do not invest in a site unless it has been studied and viewed as a money maker. If the property was already zoned for commerical use, it is not Wal-Marts fault. If Wal-Mart really wants the property, there is little Duluth can do.
As far as the strip malls, I have no idea of what these investors are thinking, unless they need some write offs.
With the housing market slowing down I hate to see what it will long like in a few short years.
By Woodie
August 27, 2007 7:00 AM | Link to this
I have 3 Walmart’s within 5 miles of my house. Collin’s Hill, Lawrencville Hwy, and Scenic Hwy. They are all “super centers”, which means they threaten the grocery stores. I don’t shop at Walmart and I haven’t ever since I discovered they do not provide medical insurance coverage for their employees. I particularly do not like the fact that they build these things all over the place and they could care less about the communities they disrupt. It’s corporate America gone awry. They are bad employers and have bad business policies. I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of these things. Now watch one of their evil PR people come on here and defend their insanity.
By Pam
August 27, 2007 7:56 AM | Link to this
WOODIE:
I live between the same three Walmarts as you. Guess what? Another one is planned for 316 at Harbins Road. How’s that for insanity?
There is obviously something that the Gwinnett Commissioners can do. I look at Cobb, North Fulton and Cherokee counties and don’t see the same thing happening in their counties. What are they doing to stop this mayhem? Why does Gwinnett outnumber them with stripmalls?
By Stewart Swartz
August 27, 2007 11:53 AM | Link to this
Rick, Regarding your latest column, about 10 years ago Eckherd plopped a store down at the corner of Singleton and Harbins. Twice previously I and neighbors had fought to stop convenience store/gas stations at that corner. I argued to the planning commission that this was a residential neighborhood; the only business at that time on the intersection was a child care center. Eckherd said they would fit right in and pointed out similar properties where they had done this. I went to those properties and the sites were nothing like ours. Kevin Kennerly was our commissioner back then, and when I met with him, he made out a list of restrictions for the property, but did not make any attempt to get Eckherd to save the large hardwood trees on the property, nor build it with brick to match the design of the daycare center. He also assured me that the northwest corner across the street, a triangular wooded lot, was too small to build anything on, because the buffers would have taken up too much space. Today, I’m sure you know, there is a Shell gas station/laudromat/chicken place there. As for the Eckherds, it was closed in about three years (I told them it was a bad location) and the property became a grafitti billboard until a Dollar General opened up. That store is busy enough, but it always has a lot of trash around its parking lot and the inside of the store is often sloppy. The home next to the Dollar General has a Zoning request pending that will allow it to have greater parking for the “friends” of the people for purposes of preparing their taxes, and the home next to the Shell is now an insurance agency. The next two homes on that side are filled with many working men, judging from the many vans parked in the driveways, and the third home down seems abandoned now, but it had many cars parked there during the day for some time, as if a business were being run out of it. Both of the latter two homes, by the way, had their front lawns virtually paved to accomodate parking. The ill-conceived zoning at Harbins and Singleton has led to the encroachment of more commercial properties and invited overcrowded, illegally occupied homes. The overall effect has eroded the surrounding property values and degraded our neighborhood. This is what happens when commissioners OK rezoning that makes no sense.
By Laura
August 27, 2007 12:40 PM | Link to this
It takes me 30 minutes to an hour to traverse the eight miles to and from work. I live in Lawrenceville near Hwy 316 and work in Duluth near PIB.
I have long thought that we should take the orange barrel and make it our state flag, since I find the barrels so abundant. In my eight mile journey, I cross at least four major road construction zones.
I also think it must be a Gwinnett mandate to clear cut all wooded corner lots and build strip shopping centers. It is also a mandate that each shopping center must have a nail salon, a lavanderia, a dollar store, and a lot of empty stores that will never be used.
It is an epidemic so say the least!
By Scott Saarlas
August 27, 2007 12:49 PM | Link to this
AAARRRGH!!!Is that enough expression for you? I don’t even know where to begin to express my frustration over Gwinnett’s irresponsible development practices. I do think there is more that needs to be framed within the ugly picture we now call Gwinnett County. That is the unabated development of housing. Just this morning I heard on NPR a new, but increasingly common “staggering statistic” – there are over 45,000 new houses currently on the market in Atlanta. I believe they also mentioned 10 months of inventory. And, with my house on the market, I am caught right in the middle of the mayhem, literally. A couple months ago I was flying into Atlanta and, as usual, when I saw the Stone Mountain landmark, I began looking for my own house which is sometimes visible depending on the flight path. Before I could spot my house, my attention was torn away by a huge tract of freshly bulldozed land that appeared to be near my neighborhood. At first I thought it was rather humorous that I didn’t know what was going on around my neighborhood except for what I could see from the seat of a 727, but I didn’t have a chance to laugh before I realized just how large of an area had been wiped clean. Later that week I drove over to Mountain Park to survey the damage and I’m not sure what sickened me more – the size of the mcmansions already being built that will dwarf the 4000 sf homes in our neighborhood, or the size of the new gated atrocity that may someday be called a “neighborhood”. Throw this in the mix of 85 more new “upscale” houses less than ½ mile away and that’s when it really hit me – Gwinnet County is out of control.
When are we going to stop listening to the same diatribe about how new houses bring new jobs to the communities? Anyone in my community who has a moment to stop and look around them can testify to the fact that new houses is doing nothing but making developers rich and adding a few extra dollars to the city coffers. Just drive through the intersection of Indian trail and Lawrenceville Hwy. The blight is horrid and not supportive of the “more houses = growth” equation. There is a gas station and drug store at opposite corners of the intersection that have been empty for years. There is a large shopping center full of small retail businesses that has not been able to support the anchor grocery store (although typically it should be the other way around, right?) Add the recent closing of a popular steak restaurant into the equation and it just doesn’t add up. And apparently our local visionaries feel that illegalizing karaoke will help solve our problems. Unfortunately, that ugly word “precedent” will rear its ugly head at every zoning meeting. How can you allow Bob to build his strip mall and not allow me to build my Wal Mart or Walgreens? If Sue can build 85 houses here, why can’t I build 250 houses there? I’m not an urban planner, but if I take the housing crisis and the vacant businesses at face value, It means that we either continue to sink in the filth that is accumulating around us, (can anyone say “crime wave?) or we start demanding new legislation that disallows construction of new homes and businesses until we get a grasp on reality. This will start by disconnecting the hardwiring between the county government and the developers, and it will take someone with true vision, experience, and guts. By the way, when are the next local elections anyway?
By Pam
August 27, 2007 2:09 PM | Link to this
STEWART SCHWARTZ:
I’m sure you have learned to NEVER listen to anything KEVIN KENERLY has to say. He did the same thing to our neighborhood in District 4. Hopefully, the rumors are true that he won’t run again.
He’s an awful commissioner and only looked out for his best interests. His neighborhood looks nothing like the rest of District 4.
By Laura
August 27, 2007 4:15 PM | Link to this
Oh Christmas will come early if Kevin does not run again!! Best news I’ve heard all day!!
By Sandy_G
August 27, 2007 8:06 PM | Link to this
I do not understand the development patterns in Gwinnett either. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen anywhere else and I’ve lived in eight different states in my lifetime. The county develops zoning and a land use plan and then doesn’t adhere to it. Commercial development is plopped down piecemeal with no overall plan, design standards for the buildings and no thought whatsover to traffic flow. Just adding right turn lanes to intersections in Gwinnett would speed up traffic and alleviate congestion in so many areas, but it’s not done.
Designing traffic flow between shopping centers and making sure parking lots connect with each other would alleviate congestion in many areas, but it’s not done. Giving developers incentives to redevelop empty, rundown strip malls would encourage reuse of existing retail space rather than building new space, but it’s not done.
Right now, at the corner of Lawrenceville Highway and Pleasant Hill Road, there are three empty businesses. A developer has promised to redevelop the Sonics drive in and a gas station next to it for over two years now. The businesses are empty, the parking lots strewn with broken glass and pieces of roofing material and the buildings are horrible looking. So is the empty car wash across the street. The weeds are literally five feet tall growing through the pavement, but apparently the county and the City of Lilburn do not have the time to make the property owners comply with the county codes. It’s because in Gwinnett, it should be done, it could be done, but it’s just not done. I’d love to know what our elected officials are doing all day. Our beautiful county is disappearing day by day and becoming an eyesore where noone wants to live. Someone needs to do something to refocus, redirect and restrict the development of Gwinnett to use the millions of square feet of empty retail space we already have before developers pave over every square inch of the county.
By Deborah
August 27, 2007 9:37 PM | Link to this
Amen, Sandy G. I couldn’t have said it better.
By Van
August 27, 2007 10:01 PM | Link to this
Here is my take on this. I used to get really upset at the unbridled stupidity of humans and their rampant rape of the environment. Then one day I realized that in 1,000 years all of the strip malls and urban sprawl houses will be dust, and trees will once again grow where they now stand. Let humanity live it up while it can. The clock is ticking and the earth will shake us off like so many fleas.
By Mike
August 27, 2007 10:47 PM | Link to this
I used to live in Lawrenceville for 10 years. I was born ITP and I’m now back home ITP! (thank god) The stuff I have read here is the same stuff that was being said of Lillian Webb 20 years ago! I still get the shakes when I drive through Gwinnett or have to go there. The place absolutely sucks! Lawrenceville, Duluth, Snellville, Suwanee, Lilburn are all gross. They are like a cancer consuming themselves.
By .
August 28, 2007 4:21 AM | Link to this
Go read a book called “Suburban Nation”. Gwinnett is textbook BAD urban planning.
When will Gwinnett stop pod-zoning so that everyone MUST get in their car and DRIVE to ANYTHING AT ALL?
Did you realized that the concept of the corner store is actually ILLEGAL in places like Gwinnett because of zoning. Think about it. AMERICANA is ILLEGAL in Gwinnett….
By Al
August 29, 2007 7:38 AM | Link to this
Near the intersection of Buford Hwy and Langford Rd there is a brand new strip mall that has been completed for several months now, yet it still sits completely empty (there is a sign for one business to go in there, but after several months they have yet to move in…maybe they’re having second thoughts?). Very close by on Langford sits another new strip mall that’s not at full capacity, while just up the road there’s another new strip mall that has never been more than half full after two years or so. Further up the way, on to PTI near Rep Miller Rd sits another new strip mall that’s still more than half empty, with land cleared for another strip mall on the corner. Meanwhile, back on Buford, the northeast and northwest corners are for sale…I can only imagine that two of three options will eventually go up on these corners: a Walgreens (why not?…there’s already a CVS across the street); a QT (why not?…there’s already a Shell station across the street); or yet another strip mall (…you get the picture…I only wish the county commissioners would).
By Al
August 29, 2007 7:45 AM | Link to this
(whoops…meant to say the northeast and northwest conners of Buford & LANGFORD)
By Al
August 29, 2007 7:45 AM | Link to this
(whoops…meant to say the northeast and northwest corners of Buford & LANGFORD)