City council member Bob Roche has sent out an urgent announcement about a town hall meeting this Thursday night concerning the fate of the GM property. His statement is short and sweet:
[There is a] Town Hall Mtg on GM Property, 10/1/2009, 6:30 pm at Fleming Arena
Please spread the word and bring as many people as possible. This may be the only chance the citizens of Doraville and surrounding areas will have to make their wishes and concerns for the GM site known.
Obviously, the reason this is so important is the report, confirmed by Jill Chambers, that Dekalb county is interested in using the GM property to build a football stadium for the Falcons. Oakcliff resident, Susan Crawford, asked me to post this message that elaborates on why a stadium would be so disastrous for our community and why it’s important to go to this meeting:
Please, please please show up on Thursday night and bring all your friends, neighbors, enemies, or whatever! Talk to your friends in Chamblee. Discuss it with people you know in Dunwoody or Brookhaven or unincorporated DeKalb. The LAST thing we need plopped into the GM property is a Falcon’s Stadium. I was talking with one of my coworkers today. She said the Baby Braves Stadium in Gwinnett County, where she lives, has turned that area into one big traffic nightmare – that traffic doesn’t move when there’s a game, that all the neighborhoods are jammed up with overflow traffic cutting through to the stadium, that the county is closing libraries to pay for the stadium (priorities, eh?) The traffic will be awful for us (how will we even manage to get out of our streets?) and will also plug up traffic going THROUGH this area down 85 or 285 East or 285 West to other states! My coworker also pointed out that the Baby Braves Stadium wreaking all sorts of havoc in Gwinnett County is nowhere near the size of what they are proposing here. Basically, if it comes in, Doraville might cease to exist, Chamblee will be a mess, Dunwoody, Brookhaven and the Northcrest areas will become nightmare traffic snarls. If you don’t like to get involved in politics, that is totally understandable, but this is more than politics. This is your home, your future, and the future of Doraville. PLEASE COME AND SPEAK UP!!!! It isn’t exactly my cup of tea to be on the eleven o’clock news either, but I20did it bad hair day and all because they aren’t playing around here. This is a very serious situation, and DeKalb County is very serious about this plan. Again, COME TO HONEYSUCKLE PARK ON THURSDAY NIGHT AT 6:30 TO LET DEKALB COUNTY KNOW YOU DO NOT WANT A STADIUM IN YOUR CITY!!! Shouldn’t Doraville have the right to decide its own future? Shouldn’t we have the right to follow our comprehensive land use plan? We are a small city, but with Dunwoody, Chamblee, Brookhaven and parts of unincorportated DeKalb, we are a formidable group.
Susan, along with city council candidate John Noonan, was also featured on a WSB TV news report that aired Monday night about the possible stadium:
I’ve no inside information. Nada, zip. All I know is what I read and observe, and what I subsequently figure out for myself.
The DeKalb Development Authority (DDA) is an organization to watch with respect to any DeKalb County involvement on the GM site, with or without a stadium in the picture. I recollect DDA is/was the agency proposed to take the Sembler Brookhaven development “public”, and thereby provide tens of millions in new property tax reduction to facilitate completion of the development. There was bad press associated with the Brookhaven proposal because the DDA Chairman, Eugene Walker, is also on the DeKalb School Board, raising questions of a conflict of interest because two-thirds or so of the property tax reductions would be at school system expense. Below is a webpage address about the DDA:
DDA meetings (beyond DDA board members, staff and some DeKalb County government representation) are probably attended by only a half dozen citizens if that. I’ve made an inquiry as to DDA meeting and agenda and will later share that information. Anybody know anything more about the DDA?
I don’t know if I’ll make the 6:30-9:30 pm October 1, 2009 town hall meeting at the Doraville City Arena on the GM site, but perhaps someone can inquire specifically about DDA as concerns the site if I’m not there.
Big news about the GM plant site — councilman Bob Roche just confirmed for me a rumor that I heard earlier this weekend that Dekalb county is considering a purchase of the site in partnership with a developer.
The implications of the development deal are big. According to councilman Roche, the city will no longer have any zoning power over the former GM property, and will lose tax revenue from it (several hundred thousand a year). It will be effectively de-annexed from the city (although Doraville will still set closing times and other similar ordinances). The county has suggested that they can patrol the site using Dekalb PD, therefore not taxing our current police forces.
The developer is New Broadstreet, based out of Orlando. The company’s president, David Pace, helped develop Disney’s Celebration USA outside Disney World. The company’s website says it is committed to New Urbanist principles — which include walkable neighborhoods, and mixed-use developments that adhere to the work-live-play philosophy.
I’ll be honest – as things stand right now, I think the prospect of getting New Broadstreet involved in Doraville is a potentially very good thing for city, and could help us achieve some quality development that we have been missing for a long time. My main concern is that the county has not yet announced its intentions and as Bob Roche said: Once they own the property, they could put a smelting plant there if they wanted. For now, though, I am cautiously optimistic.
[EDIT 9/21/2009] Bob Roche just wrote me to say that DeKalb’s main plan for the space would be a Falcon’s stadium, with mixed use as a “Plan-B.” Obviously, a stadium would have major implications for all residents of Doraville in regards to traffic, property-value, and the quality of future developments in the city.
In December, I wrote about the Sembler Company’s desire to purchase Doraville’s shuttered GM plant and build a new football stadium for the Atlanta Falcons. It seemed like a long-shot idea at the time, and frankly still does. Even so, it has cropped up again, with Sembler bidding $45 million for the GM site in May (I’m not sure why something that happened in May is suddenly newsworthy in September). According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle:
Sembler, based in St. Petersburg, and an undisclosed equity partner placed a nearly $45 million bid to secure the plant in May, but GM thought the price was too low, according to sources with knowledge of the process. GM is seeking closer to $70 million for the 165-acre site at Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and Interstate 285.
The article goes on to say that other developers are now considering their own bids to build a new Falcons stadium in Doraville.
As a resident of the city, I think this is a horrible idea. Back in December, the two main factions of the city’s political establishment seemed to be aligning behind this idea – which is disturbing. Susan Crawford sent an e-mail out yesterday to several residents, which sums up many of my own feelings:
People, please don’t underestimate the impact a new Falcons stadium coming in to the GM property will have on your lives, your families, your schools, your neighborhoods, and your property values, not to mention peace and quiet. Doraville will be nothing but a blighted area. Do a little research and see for yourselves what sorts of areas surround sports arenas in large cities. Think of Boston, New York, Chicago, Miami, and even where our Falcons stadium is now. Think of the effect a stadium on the GM property would have on surrounding areas as well – Chamblee, Dunwoody, Brookhaven. Everyone in the area will suffer because of Doraville’s failure to zone that property, something many residents have been insisting on for some time now. If the zoning is changed to something more resident-friendly (and we still have time!) a stadium cannot come in. For me, the candidate’s positions on this issue alone will determine who I vote for. Anyone willing to sell me out for a stadium will never get my backing. This may be the single most important issue we’ve come up against as a city. I urge you to give some thought to a united effort to block this from happening.
The GM land is the key to Doraville’s future. I think that the failure to zone the GM property in a way that would prohibit this type of development is a huge failure on the part of our city government. I am very interested to hear the opinion of all the city council candidates on this issue.
Doraville’s city election is fast approaching – November 3rd at city hall.
The deadline for qualifying was this week, so we now know all the people who are running for each district. Many familiar faces and not a whole lot of surprises. Thanks to Eleanor Earley for putting this information together and e-mailing it out.
Council District One (Tilly Mill City Council Seat)
I tried to add links to campaign websites where I knew they existed. If you know of any other candidates with websites, please e-mail me or add them in the comments. I will update this post as we go along.
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