FLOWERY BRANCH – It wasn’t on the agenda but it definitively was on the minds of city leaders when the Flowery Branch City Council met Thursday evening.
Council members and city staff had been hearing about it all week but it was just gossip, scuttlebutt and hearsay...so far; so far there wasn’t the first bit of paperwork that anyone could point to and say the rumors were reality.
The cause célèbre: reports that a religious group was planning to build a large multi-use community on 250-plus acres off Hog Mountain Road.
At Thursday evening’s city council meeting City Manager Bill Andrew, Mayor Mike Miller and other city leaders said they had been receiving plenty of commentary about the rumored development: comments made through social media, email, text messages and phone calls.
And apparently not all those commenting were exhibiting good social grace; some opinions and comments were strongly worded according to city leaders.
“In the South Hall community there has been quite an uproar about that supposed complex,” Mayor Miller said, parsing his words with care. “At this point it is just rumor mill stuff because nothing has officially been proposed to the city. Nothing has been applied for.”
Because of that, Miller says, the city has made no comment and that silence has caused some people to suggest that city leaders are skirting the issue. “There’s been some concern that the city has no comment on it, and there’s a reason we’ve had no comment, because there’s nothing from our standpoint to comment on.”
“Until there’s an official application for either a zoning change or any conditions on that property there’s nothing for us to comment on,” Miller explained.
Nonetheless, area residents have had plenty to say and a petition opposing the rezoning and possible annexation needed from the city council had garnered nearly 5,000 signatures as of this writing.
According to an email received in the AccessWDUN newsroom this week from the church’s attorney a planned meeting between the church group (La Luz del Mundo) and residents in the Sterling on the Lake Subdivision was cancelled by Hall County officials due to concern about having more people attend the meeting than the meeting room could legally accommodate.
While Miller has heard from numerous citizens opposing the project, he said he personally had not spoken with anyone connected to the church. He did add, “The attorney for the organization has contacted our City Planner and City Manager…but it was all proposals of possibilities.”
If an application is submitted, Miller explained, “then we would go through our due diligence of impacts and the effects on surrounding areas…”
Miller explained that he had been told the organization, “had purchased six parcels (of land), two of which are in the city limits and four which are not.”
Miller said unless the group asked to have the four parcels of land in unincorporated Hall County annexed into the city of Flowery Branch, the developers would have to deal with the Hall County Commission regarding those parcels.
Miller did comment that in most cases zoning and annexation applications are handled before an investor purchases property, but in this case the property had been purchased in advance. Miller said he was told more than $9-million had been spent to secure the six parcels.
