Angry residents branded city officials as “scumbags” and “a bunch of liars” from the stands of Buford Arena after Buford City Commissioners voted in favor of a controversial warehouse plan in southern Hall County.
On Monday, the commissioners unanimously voted to annex and rezone 6533 McEver Road, which will let Chicago-based CA Ventures construct nearly 400,000 square feet of office and warehouse space on the property.
The stands were filled with about 75 people, consisting of residents and officials from neighboring jurisdictions. Before commissioners ended the public hearing, about 10 residents and county officials spoke against the requests.
Speakers voiced concerns about traffic, safety and the degradation of the residential character of the McEver Road area. Residents continued to try to speak, prompting security staff to turn off a microphone and almost ejecting two upset residents who continued to yell at commissioners.
“This is small-minded government, watching out for their own self-interest ... at the expense of others,” said Farley Barge, who runs a women’s recovery center next to the future development. “You can clearly see that the residents of southern Hall County are tired of it.”
The board proceeded to vote on other items on its agenda, at which time most residents left the building. At the end of the meeting, Commission Chairman Phillip Beard said the annexation will allow Buford, a city of 16,000 people in Gwinnett and Hall counties, to grow its tax digest and help fund Buford City Schools.
“The votes have been rendered, but I’m absolutely appalled by this decision this evening,” Joe Anglin, mayor pro tem of Flowery Branch, told commissioners Monday evening. “... That justification to put that dangerous deal right there in that spot — there easily could have been another use for that.”
After the meeting, Beard told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Hall County should have “dealt” with the annexation instead of “putting it on us.”
CA Ventures initially took the proposal to Hall County in October 2020 but withdrew its application after planning commissioners recommended denial. The developer then went to Flowery Branch in December, at which time City Council denied it after 20 residents spoke in opposition.
Hall County and Buford went into arbitration after the county filed a formal objection in March 2021 to the annexation and rezoning requests, in which a panel voted in favor of Buford.
The county’s objection stated that the project would raise infrastructure costs, increase traffic and be inconsistent with the county’s future land use development map. The property is currently zoned for single-family homes in an area designated by Hall County for residential use.
The property will be linked to Buford’s city limits by a subdivision located across railroad tracks from the project site, inaccessible by road to the rest of the city’s limits. Hall County commissioners worried the annexation would create an island surrounded by other jurisdictions.
Buford planning commissioners recommended approval at a July meeting, leading to an outcry of opposition from angry residents.
CA Ventures plans to construct two buildings that could house multiple tenants: one 221,400 square feet and the other 175,000 square feet. The $55 million project is expected to create 200 jobs. The developer is aiming to complete the project by late 2022.
The development would have three entrances on McEver Road on a curve, referred to by some as “dead man’s curve.” CA Ventures has said it would add a 100-foot buffer to the property, widen the road, increase the road’s visibility line and add a middle turn lane and deceleration lane by the property.
Bernadette Scruggs, who lives across from the development, worries about the safety of her nephew who catches the bus on the curve of McEver Road. She told commissioners on Monday that the improvements from CA Ventures wouldn’t fix the road’s dangerous curve.
“The many fatal accidents that have happened on that road have happened without the added complications of semi-trucks pulling in and out,” Scruggs said. “... Keep the residential areas residential.”
Stanton Porter, an attorney representing property owners adjacent to the warehouse site, told the AJC that residents could appeal the decision to Hall County Superior Court. He told commissioners that the decision would violate his clients’ due process and equal protection rights, giving them a cause of action to sue.
Beard told the AJC that he has “never had a complaint” about the “half a million square feet” of development near his Hamilton Mill Road home. He claimed that it’d be more dangerous to put 200 homes on the property instead of the warehouses.
“As long as we’ve got to fund (our) school district, we’ve got to find ways to do it and growing is one of them,” Beard told the AJC. “This (project) does not put one kid in our school district. It pays tax and that’s it.”
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