Concerned about traffic congestion and school overcrowding, more than 1,300 Gwinnett residents have signed a petition urging county officials to deny a rezoning request for developers looking to build more than 200 townhomes near Mill Creek High School.
Rocklyn Homes wants to build 220 townhomes on 32-acre tract near I-85 and the well-traveled intersection of Braselton Highway and Spout Springs Road. In order for the project to become a reality, the property would have to be rezoned from its current general business district designation to R-TH, the county’s single-family townhouse district classification.
The Gwinnett County Planning Commission tabled a decision on that request in December and expects to take it up again at its Feb. 7 meeting.
Liz Lockard, who created the petition opposing the development, lives a short distance from the Buford-area property.
“We just want the big picture looked at,” Lockard told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday. “And we want our voices to be heard.”
Even in ever-urbanizing Gwinnett, the area is one still filled primarily with traditional single-family subdivisions, smaller-scale retail and office developments. That — in addition to worries about worsening traffic and the potential impact on a school that already has one of the state’s largest enrollments — is what drove Lockard to create her petition.
It’s also what drove more than 1,300 supporters to sign it as of Tuesday morning.
“We don’t feel that high density housing, which is a proposed 7.15 units per acre on this rezoning request, fits in,” Lockard said. “It’s because of the amount of homes and the amount of people it would bring in.”
An attorney representing Rocklyn Homes in the rezoning proposal did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The proposed townhomes would be in a gated community that would include a pool, clubhouse and tennis courts, according to documents submitted to the planning commission. The homes likely would be at least 2,000 square feet and sell in the area of $290,000, officials have said.
Planning Commission Chairman Chuck Warbington lives in the area where the project is proposed. While he described the existing traffic problem as “horrendous,” he suggested that townhomes would actually clog roads less than any project that would fit the property’s current commercial zoning. A traffic study submitted by the developer said the same thing.
Even if that’s the case, Lockard said, she doesn’t want denser residential development to become a trend in her neck of Gwinnett’s woods.
“I can’t go any further to get away,” she said. “A lot of people have moved up here because they like the rural. They like being away from the busy city part.”
Any decision by the planning commission would also have to be approved by the Gwinnett Board of Commissioners.
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