- Target:
- Buford Planning Department and Buford City Commissioners
- Region:
- United States of America
The acreage located at 6533 McEver Road in Flowery Branch, GA is zoned agricultural-residential. Despite its zoning, the property has been advertised for sale as potential commercial or light industrial. A company, intent upon building an enormous distribution center on the property, sought to get the zoning changed in Hall County and then, after much local citizen resistance, withdrew their application. Shortly after, the same company, intent upon achieving its goal of building the distribution center, filed an annexation and rezoning request with the City of Flowery Branch. A petition with over 450 signatures against rezoning was shared with the Flowery Branch Council. The hearing was attended by well over a hundred citizens and all who spoke, except the project's sewer contractor, were fervently against the building of a distribution center in a residential/recreational area with curvy, dangerous, narrow roads, located directly next to a residential recovery center for women. The Flowery Branch Mayor and City Council listened carefully to each speaker, spoke thoughtfully about the situation, and voted 4 to 1 against annexation.
TWO MONTHS LATER- A NOTIFICATION ARRIVED FROM THE CITY OF BUFORD FOR A PROPOSED PROPERTY ANNEXATION AND ZONING FROM AR-III TO M-1 FOR 6533 MCEVER ROAD
-The proposed path to annexation is behind a residential subdivision and ACROSS railroad tracks
-The proposed annexation parcel is indicated as residential on the 2019 revision of Buford's Future Land Use map
Apparently, though the City of Buford did not require a site plan to zone this property to M-1, the drawing provided to Buford's Planning Department indicated the same features as previous two attempts in Hall County and the City of Flowery Branch.
-Two warehouses @ 218,700 and 168,480 square feet
-Three stories high with bright lighting
-Parking for 73 semi-trucks and 280 cars
-Proposed driveway entrance and exit at a curve known locally as "Deadman's Curve" due to the many accidents with mortal injury that have occurred at that site and additionally, interfering with existing homes and subdivisions, causing serious traffic concerns
-24 hour operation
Hall County and Buford City have wisely prepared for industrial traffic with four-lane roads by the interstate, like HF Reed Industrial Parkway, Thurmond Tanner Road, and Hamilton Mill Road Industrial Park. There are numerous appropriate places to build M-1 facilities without ruining the infrastructure, landscape, property values, already tenuous safety, and residential climate of this area.
We, the undersigned, ask the Buford City Board of Commissioners to vote "no" on the annexation and rezoning of the parcel of land at 6533 McEver Road. The owner of this land has clearly demonstrated his desire to sell to the highest bidder regardless of the costs, safety and otherwise, to the nearby community. The area residents have indicated their opposition to this rezoning by confronting this issue with both Hall County and with the City of Flowery Branch. Please, Buford City Commissioners, hear the concerns of the residents in these neighborhoods. Do not allow these businesses to go unchecked when so many bought property in good faith while knowing that 6533 McEver Road was zoned agricultural-residential.
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The No Annexation or Rezoning of 6533 McEver Road petition to Buford Planning Department and Buford City Commissioners was written by Bernadette Scruggs and is in the category City & Town Planning at GoPetition.