Good Growth DeKalb: New Zoning Plan Not an Improvement

DeKalb County's proposed zoning code isn't an improvement over existing code and favors corporate interests, including cell phone companies, Good Growth DeKalb said Tuesday.

The group, most known for its fight against Walmart in North Decatur, held a press conference before a county public forum on the zoning code. (The presser unfortunately occurred around the same time county CEO Burrell Ellis was being indicted.)

DeKalb County's proposed zoning code can be found here: http://planningdekalb.net/?page_id=756

Here's is Good Growth DeKalb's statement:

For the last 1.5 years, Good Growth DeKalb has been opposing the proposed Walmart Supercenter at Suburban Plaza.  Our mission is to promote the interests of communities and to work for sustainable growth in greater Decatur and DeKalb County.  We are at this public forum today because we have serious concerns about the new DeKalb County zoning plan, which will affect residential and commercial issues for years to come but which has had little community input and, as far as we know, no media coverage.

When we first discovered that Selig Enterprises intended to bring a Walmart Supercenter to our crowded 6-way intersection, we were told that zoning allowed this, but that a new, improved zoning plan was in the works.  Now that it’s been completed, this new zoning plan does not appear to be an improvement.  Although it addresses some important new issues such as home gardens, on the whole we believe it makes it more possible for unwanted development to happen, and less possible for communities to have a say.

Whether your house or condo is worth $50,000 or half a million, you have made an investment in your community. The major investment of a person's life should not be taken for granted by elected officials. Development can either enhance that investment or destroy it.  Existing local, small and medium-size businesses in our communities, which help give our neighborhoods their character, can also be destroyed by bad development.

These are some specific areas of concern with the proposed new plan:  The new zoning plan allows cell phone towers anywhere – including residential areas where, as we understand it, they are currently banned.  Further, the language regarding cell towers was taken verbatim from the telecom industry – clearly representing a special interest, and not representing the interests of the people who live here.

There are many questions about Article 7 of the new plan, Administration and Enforcement.  Good Growth DeKalb asks for more opportunities for the public to hear and understand any and all zoning changes and new development.   The new plan does not give specifics about when the public is to be notified or how.  Our experience is that we hear about a meeting the day before or the day after, when it is too late.

The Community Councils need to be strengthened to reflect neighborhood concerns.  From what we can understand, the plan places more power in the hands of County staff, versus elected officials, reducing accountability.  It is difficult for anyone to understand the plan because there is no red-lined version comparing the new plan to the old one.  We understand that at least in some cases, appeal rights are allowed only to developers, as opposed to communities, on unwanted development.  Again, we need all of this spelled out and clear.

Neighborhoods want to start new cities all over DeKalb County. This is a serious threat to the economic health of our county and a destructive trend, but understandable: citizens do not feel their county is responsive to them.  State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, in a recent email to constituents, reports that the #1 reason residents want cityhood is for “local control of zoning.”  It is regrettable that the county is threatened by cityhood movements, and regrettable that residents feel the need to sue their own county.  It is up to the county to make changes to the status quo.  Unfortunately, it appears that the new zoning plan worsens the current situation.

We need our voices to be heard, respected and responded to.  We ask the county to show us where in this plan neighborhoods have more voice now than before.  Where in the plan are Community Councils, the counterpart of City of Atlanta’s neighborhood planning units, made more representative, more public, and given more influence than they have now?  How does the new zoning code balance the needs of neighborhoods and homeowners in relation to developers?  The plan is currently scheduled for a vote at a daytime Board of Commissioners meeting on June 25 at a daytime meeting, difficult for residents to attend.  We encourage far greater public input and involvement in the scrutiny of this plan, so that numerous improvements can be made.

The new draft zoning plan is huge – hundreds of pages, and even some of our county commissioners have said they cannot get through it.  The county is pushing for it to be voted on June 25.  Good Growth DeKalb is calling for a 90-day moratorium on the vote.  This is far too important a document to be rushed through.

Whether it’s a new parking deck that obstructs the view from your home; the unwanted invasion of Dollar Stores in your community; cell phone towers in residential areas and on elementary school grounds; infringement on a Frederick Law Olmstead historic district; tearing down of a beautiful historic church for commercial development; or a 149,000 square foot Walmart Supercenter jammed into a heavily congested six-way intersection – and all which are currently going on in DeKalb County – we need for the county to make this plan responsive to the needs of communities.

Good Growth DeKalb neighbors are asking for fairness. We, and other community organizations, have had to raise hard-earned funds to sue our own county. This should not go on in our beautiful DeKalb.

We're calling on elected officials to delay the zoning ordinance. We're calling on them to make this zoning revision work for homeowners and for small and medium-sized business owners.  Then we truly can have GOOD GROWTH in DeKalb!

What do you think of the group's statement? Tell us in the comments section below.