County commissioners voted Friday to defer a decision on a variance requested by Smart Growth Forsyth about a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on Ga. 141 in the south part of the county.
Although a firm date of Feb. 1 had been determined for a decision on this variance, the commissioners voted 3-1 to move the vote for next Thursday's regular meeting after new evidence was presented at the 11th hour. Commissioner David Richard voted against and Commissioner Linda Ledbetter was not present.
The retailer's original plans for the site called for piping 342-feet of stream but a new plan would call for 110-feet to be piped with significant enhancements done to the remainder of the stream.
Wal-Mart's new plan also calls for a reduction of the size of the store as well as limiting the delivery hours from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Smart Growth Forsyth presented their own set of conditions in a letter to board members last night.
Contention from the board came when they said they had not had ample time to go over both sets of conditions.
"We have been at this a long time," said Commissioner Brian Tam. "Folks have been inconvenienced by coming here for meetings many times. But at the same time, this is a big issue and it's our responsibility to look at this at every angle to make something we can all live with."
Board chairman Charles Laughinghouse agreed.
"Based upon the evidence we had I was ready to go forth with a decision but new evidence was presented and I haven't seen any of Wal-Mart's conditions," he said.
For Smart Growth founder Robert Slaughter, this has been a four-year process to fight the building of a Wal-Mart across the street from where he used to live. He still lives in the county and is dedicated to fight the store although it seems close to the point of breaking ground.
"It's been a long four years. Folks believe it's by design, but we do what we have to do. We got our report yesterday and sent it to the commissioners within a few hours," he said.
Labels: Alpharetta, Cumming, Forsyth, Walmart
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 1:43 PM
