Friday, November 9, 2001
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Friday, November 9, 2001 |
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Parking lot approved for World Changers By JOHN
THOMPSON God played the final mediator Wednesday in a zoning dispute between World Changers Ministries and residents surrounding the church. The Fulton County Commission decided to grant Kreflo Dollar's request to rezone 36 acres on Burdett Road for a 362-space parking lot. World Changers officials and neighbors have conducted more than 20 meetings on the issue, because many of the residents, according to Vic Bolton, are worried about more traffic and development at the Old National church. But state Sen. Donzella James urged the commissioners to approve the zoning because the church had breathed new life into Old National. "Businesses have started doing well again and the traffic on the road has returned," James said. "World Changers has been very good to Fulton County. There is a very strong tax base on that road again," she said. Not all residents shared James' enthusiasm for the project. It's unfairly impacted our lives," said Corliss Claire. "All we've had from them is wide open development," she said. Residents wanted World Changers to submit a 15-year development plan for the site, but church officials said they could not do that because they built when the Holy Spirit told them to. Commissioner Bill Edwards finally forced a compromise with the two groups after relaying a recent exchange he had with the church's founder, Kreflo Dollar. "Kreflo told me that God told him he wouldn't build anything else at the site if he got the parking lot," Edwards said. Edwards instructed the two sides to go to a back room at Assembly Hall and reach a compromise. After lunch, the two sides agreed on the parking lot, and the zoning was passed by the commission.
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