An application for a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) on Creekwood Road on Fairburn’s south side for a biomedical waste treatment facility has been filed with Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC).

If approved, the 14,200 square-foot facility would bring in biomedical waste for treatment and add 132 daily trips initially and another 248 trips per day when the second phase for a manufacturing facility is completed next decade.

The facility would be located in the proximity of the Ga. Highway 74 and I-85 interchange. Citing watershed issues, ARC’s preliminary evaluation concluded that the project would be in violation of state planning criteria.

Seattle-based TreatMed, Inc. is listed as the developer on the DRI submission as intending to construct a biomedical waste treatment facility on 4.22 acres along Creekwood Road, a short distance to the north from Oakley Industrial Boulevard and the interchange.

The DRI document lists the owner of the 4.22-acre property as Scarwall, LLC, formerly known as Fayette Environmental, LLC. Both companies listed Fayette developer Brent Scarbrough as the registered agent, according to the Georgia Secretary of State.

TreatMed does not have a website, though a small business information website lists the company as having two employees with annual sales estimated at $130,000.

The project’s email address for contacts listed on the DRI submission is for Ecodas, a French firm that designs, manufactures and supplies automated medical waste treatment equipment. Ecodas products and services are marketed worldwide. Attorneys for the proposed development are Atlanta’s Dillard & Galloway.

The project is proposed in two phases. The first phase would construct a 14,200 square-foot treatment facility that would begin construction in November. The second phase, a 16,000 square-foot manufacturing/office building, is slated for 2016.

A July 6 letter to Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) from engineering consulting firm Kimley-Horn & Associates states that the medical waste treatment facility and accompanying offices will employ 16 people while the future manufacturing/office building would employ 24 people.

The waste treatment building is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2010 and would generate 123 vehicle trips per day, while the second phase would generate 248 trips, for a total of 434 trips per day.

In its July 20 Regional Review Notice, preliminary comments by ARC staff noted that the property is located within the Line Creek Water Supply watershed that is a water supply source for Fayette and Coweta counties. Any development in the area is subject to a limit of 25 percent impervious surface and is under the jurisdiction of Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources.

“Based on the information provided, this project appears to be a hazardous waste treatment facility and, unless alternate criteria have been developed by the city and approved by Georgia DCA (Dept. of Community Affairs), its development in this location would be in violation of the State Planning Criteria. If development of this project proceeds, the city will need to determine if the proposal is within the 25 percent impervious coverage requirement for its portion of the basin, unless alternate criteria have been developed and approved,” said ARC Director Charles Krautler in the July 20 preliminary comments.

In another development issue related to the area around the Bohannon Road/Creekwood Road and I-85/Ga. Highway 74 area, the Atlanta Business Chronicle (ABC) reported July 24 that Chicago-based First Industrial Realty Trust is looking to build Georgia’s first intermodal business park and is in preliminary discussions with CSX Corp. to develop a 148-acre site for that purpose at the railroad’s intermodal complex north of I-85 near Ga. Highway 74.

First Industrial wants to develop the park next to the CSX Intermodal terminal, with the hopes of convincing U.S. and international companies to locate huge warehouse and distribution centers at the site, according to ABC. The park would also target the Asian import traffic generated by the Port of Savannah. Intermodal parks already give other big logistics states, such as Texas, Illinois and California, an advantage when trying to attract large warehouse and distribution centers, the report said.

CSX won approval from the Fairburn City Council in June 2007 for a conceptual site plan for the expansion of its intermodal that would add another 700 parking spaces for trucks, add two sets of railroad tracks and double the amount of truck traffic into the McLarin Road/U.S. Highway 29 facility.

Prior to the approval, the CSX Intermodal had parking accommodations for 400 trucks. Daily truck traffic at the facility on the Fairburn’s west side totaled an average of 107 tractor-trailers into and out of the intermodal. That number is expected to double once the expansion is completed, CSX Director of Terminal Support Samuel Randolph told Fairburn council members. CSX also agreed to help address the need for establishing a new I-85 interchange at Gullat Road, just south of the Hwy. 74 interchange.

A local effort in August 2006, the South Fulton Freight Mobility Tour, initiated by Creekwood Road resident and long-time South Fulton community activist and former Fulton County Community Zoning Board member Sandra Hardy, brought representatives of the Atlanta Regional Commission, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, CSX Railroad, MARTA and others together to visit areas of congestion in South Fulton and discuss the need for a formative dialogue to combat what will otherwise become continuous gridlock at I-85/Hwy. 74 and along Ga. Highway 92 in coming years. The dialogue occurred but, to date, no progress to address the situation has been forthcoming.

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