Cherokee Honda dealership wants part of neighborhood

By Christopher Quinn

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Honda dealer wants the city of Woodstock to annex three homes in a bordering subdivision so it can buy them and turn the land into a parking lot.

If not, the dealership says it will have to move from Cherokee County to Cobb County and take its sales taxes with it.

Tim Anthuis, one of about 125 homeowners in the Kingsridge subdivision, said neighbors feel like they are fighting big government and big business. They don't like the odds or the potential results.

"And it is all about money," he said. "It is going to devalue our homes."

Jerry Goddard, general manager for Hennessy, said they have little choice. Like the neighborhood, they have been hemmed in by growth and no longer meet Honda's strict requirements for space for a dealership with their sales numbers. They have been parking new cars off site, which has created work and security problems. To keep the franchise, there is no place to go but into Kingsridge or somewhere else.

They have talked to the owners of the homes, which are all occupied, and made offers. If they buy the lots -- totalling about 2 acres -- and the city annexes them, they will build a 6-foot-high berm and put $60,000 worth of landscaping and fencing between the parking lot and other homes in Kingsridge, Goddard said.

"The homeowners don't like it this way. But we are hoping it will be an enhancement and not a detraction," he said. "We realize home values are important and we don't want to devalue anyone's home."

Lloyd Langston has watched for 37 years as commercial development along Ga. 92 pushed closer to Kingsridge. From its intersection with I-575, the highway has turned into a major retail corridor in Cherokee County in the last decade, packed with strip centers, restaurants and big box stores. Now, west of I-575, a thin palisade of trees is all that stands between Langston and the back of Hennessy Honda and a Home Depot's loading bays, where fork lifts beep and clatter at all hours. If Hennessy gets its way, the parking  plot will jut into Kingsridge two doors down, hemming him in from two sides.

"We just want to be left alone," Langston said.

He pointed out that a closed car wash adjoins the Honda property. He wonders why the dealership doesn't buy it instead.

Goddard said the car wash is too small.

"It boils down to cost per space," he said.

Cherokee County initially sided with the homeowners, protesting the proposed annexation, but backed off last week.

County Commissioner Derek Good, who represents the area, said state law makes it difficult to stop cities from annexing. An annexation appeal would have cost Cherokee County tens of thousands of dollars.

"We could block it for six or seven or nine months, but would that be a good use of taxpayers' money?" Good asked.

Instead, he agreed to drop opposition if Woodstock would write in protections, such as building the berm, limiting night-time deliveries and controlling noise and lighting.

Woodstock already lost a Dodge car lot last year, one of three in the city. The city and county get a portion of  taxes from sales and a special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST, said City Manager Jeff Moon. Losing another dealer would be an economic blow, he said.

It's a tough situation for both the business and the homeowners, said Chris Casdia, the city councilman who represents the area.

"I've seen emails from concerned residents behind the Honda dealership, and I get it" he said.

At the same time, "You definitely don't want a business to leave," Casdia said.

The annexation has to be approved by the city planning commission and the City Council. The  meetings are scheduled for April, Moon said.

Langston, the longtime resident, predicts a strong showing at the meetings.

"We will have our own little tea party," he said, referring to the recent national meetings of political conservatives reacting to economic and political events.