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Thursday, September 6, 2007
Behind every rezoning sign there’s a story
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Orange, yellow and blue signs dot the landscape around Snellville. The blue are requests for annexation into city limits. Yellow is for rezonings. Orange reflects land use changes.
You can see them along U.S, 78, Temple Johnson and Rosebud roads. So far this year, Snellville has received 10 annexation proposals and 18 rezoning requests.
Each one has a story. Each requires time and attention. Some have significant opposition. All raise questions.
Conflicts are common when the drive for services, development and profit clash with the fight for quality of life.
Rarely are the answers clear cut. When is a landowner protecting his rights? When is he being greedy? When are nearby homeowners justified? When are they unreasonable? When is change and growth OK?
Here’s just one case to try on for size:
Long ago and not so far away, a four-room schoolhouse stood at Rosebud and Brushy Fork roads. The school house eventually burned. A red brick ranch was built in 1965.
Five years later, an equipment manufacturing company settled onto property next to the home. Allowing the industry to put down roots amounted to a “spot zoning,” Snellville planners said.
Remember, this was 37 years ago in rural Gwinnett County. The area between Snellville and Loganville, though residential, was filled with wooded lots and green pastures.
Fast forward to today. The area is no longer rural. Subdivision after subdivision has sprouted around the industrial plant, along with a couple of churches, a school and a golf course. Recently built homes are still for sale just up the street.
The company, Tomco2 Systems — which manufactures carbon dioxide equipment, including storage tanks — has grown. Its Web site says it is the worldwide leader in carbon dioxide products and services, with a China market and international shipping. Tomco2 has been a good neighbor, according to homeowners who spoke at a recent public meeting. (Company officials have not commented in response to my calls on Wednesday,)
Today the ranch home sits abandoned, Steve Moon, who bought the home in 1993 and lived there until 2003, says noise from Tomco2 makes it unsuitable for daily life (particularly sleeping). He wants his property annexed into the city of Snellville and rezoned from residential to office/professional so it can be the site for a day-care center.
Area homeowners oppose Moon’s request, saying it departs from the residential nature of the area. They’ve lived with Tomco2 as a neighbor and do not mind its presence, but if a day care opens, a slippery slope to further commercialization is created, they say.
Homeowners also argue that the intersection of Brushy Fork and Rosebud is too dangerous for a day-care center. And they don’t want what they feel will be additional traffic.
Lonnie Todd, president of LT Construction, Inc. is working with Today’s Kids Inc. to develop the “child development center” at the site. He said the noise from Tomco2 will not bother the day care. The center will only be open during weekdays, and it will not create additional traffic, he said. And the intersection is much safer for a day-care center than locations along U.S. 78, he says.
Some 80 e-mails opposing the change have been sent to Snellville Planning Commission members and others in recent weeks.
Snellville city planners and the planning commission have recommended approval, saying the child care center would provide a service and be a reasonable and “transitional” use for the site. They’ve added stipulations, including one for a traffic study to determine safety needs at the intersection.
This is not the first time a change has been pursued for that location. In 2005, Gwinnett County turned down a request to rezone it for a convenience store. The county objected to that land use and objects to current plans for a day care.
The matter is now going through “dispute resolution” between the county and city. No Snellville City Council action on the rezoning or annexation will occur until after that process is complete, which could take months.
Moon acknowledges that he has had previous chances to sell the property. The county offered $245,000 for it for a new fire station, he said. And Tomco2 offered to purchase the land for a parking lot.
But Moon turned down both because the amounts were based on the residential zoning and were low. If the property is going to be used for something other than a residence, he should be paid a commercial rate, Moon said. His contract to sell the property for a day care will pay $500,000, he said.
Mike Beaudreau, county commissioner for that area, said this is a case of the property owner trying to “extract every last penny from his property.”
“This is another example of if they don’t get what they want from the county, they go to the city,” Beaudreau said. “I have confidence the mayor and council will see that this is not a congruent use for the property.”
So, what do you think? In this battle of growth, who wears the white hat?
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