Fairburn City Council recently acted on behalf of overwhelming citizen objection to a proposal by Walker Brothers to establish a waste transfer station on Bohannon Road.

The council’s denial was followed Sept. 11 with a lawsuit by the company, saying the site plan should have been approved because the property was zoned to accommodate a household trash and construction and demolition debris facility.

The council sided with a massive outpouring of concern by residents in recent weeks by denying the conceptual site plan that would have led to the construction of the transfer station on a 26.48-acre site located on the west side of Bohannon Road between Roosevelt Highway and I-85.

Residents’ objections included the increased volume of truck traffic, damage to city streets, the impact on property values, increased odors, the presence of vermin and potential environmental justice violations as reasons for prompting the council to deny the request.

The Bohannon Road site’s M-2 zoning is a permitted use for transfer stations. In the lawsuit, Walker Brothers attorney David Flint said denial of the conceptual site plan in an area already zoned for such a use was arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and an abuse of authority.

Cited in the lawsuit were Mayor Betty Hannah, members of the city council and city administrator Jim Williams.

In his comments about the lawsuit, city attorney Brad Sears told the council the city’s liability carrier has declined to defend the case.

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