Fairburn Planning & Zoning commissioners at the March meeting gave their approval to an annexation and zoning request that would turn a 55-acre residentially zoned site on Creekwood Road into one zoned M-1 (Light Industrial). The proposal includes trading 16 acres of city owned property for an equal number of acres owned by Simmons Vedder.

City Administrator Jim Williams told commissioners that, if approved, the request would provide a high taxpaying industrial project and eliminate a 100-lot subdivision that tends to be tax-consuming, one that would be difficult to service with police and fire protection

“The property is adjacent to the S.C. Johnson warehouse on Creekwood. We were startled some months ago when we found out that this property, which is in the unincorporated area, was on the Land Use Plan and zoned for residential,” Williams said. “We’ve got a major warehouse distribution center next to it and on one side you’ve got the interstate highway. The plan (for the property) was to develop 100 homes on the 55 acre tract. We couldn’t really do anything about this. It was in the unincorporated area. We expressed our concern to Fulton County about putting a subdivision in that area for the exact same reason we talked about Hampton Inn. It’s very, very difficult to provide police and fire protection to it and I think anytime you do a residential subdivision you’ve got to give it that major consideration.”

Williams said Simmons Vedder representative David Arnow was asked to take a look at possibly acquiring the property and developing a facility similar to the S.C. Johnson distribution center. Arnow pursued the idea over a period of many months, Williams said. Arnow recently contacted the city, explaining that the parcel was odd-shaped, adding that a portion of land needed to be added to it to square off the property lines, Williams said.

“Well, that little bit of land, along Creekwood, is in a floodplain. More importantly, that property backs up to property Fairburn owns. It’s the back of the (300-acre) property that we were going to use for the sewerage treatment plant site,” said Williams. “David asked if it would be possible for us to trade some property so that he could square off his property and do the type of development we wanted to do.”

“We talked about the implications of this and because we have a desire to develop our 300 acres as a nature preserve, that it would be mutually advantageous if he would trade us the low-lying areas, the wildlife areas, that are part of his project for for an equal number of acres. It looked like it was a win-win situation.”

Williams said Arnow identified a 16-acre site contiguous to the 55-acre tract. The acreage is owned by the city but is not in the city. Consequently, Williams said, the city has gone in with Simmons Vedder on the annexation request. Williams said that, if it is annexed, the city will trade Simmons Vedder the 16 contiguous acres for a 16-acre section that will serve the city’s purposes for the nature preserve.

A final parcel of property related to the proposal involves a 5.3-acre tract located along Creekwood Road, immediately south of the city limits and immediately north of the 55-acre site. A single family homes is located on the site. If the annexation request is approved the 5.3-acre site would become an island.

“We don’t want to mess with them at all. We just don’t want to have a little island left unincorporated,” said Williams. “We have asked (the home’s owners) if they have any objection to (the annexation) and they said no.”

Everything considered, said Williams, the request provides a win-win situation for all parties. The homeowner, he added, will be given written assurances that they will not be disturbed in any way.

“It does involve a land trade from Fairburn to Simmons Vedder,” Williams said. “But in return they trade an equal number of acres back to us. So we think we win by enlarging our nature area. We think that the (homeowner) wins because they get much better service from our facilities which are closer and we think the original property owner wins because he gets a lot of money. In all, it is important that we have one unified area. We think this is the right land use and the right location and we feel it’s in everybody’s best interest.”

Commissioner’s recommendation will go before the city council at the March 27 meeting.

login to post comments