GAINESVILLE – A pair of rezoning applications, one of which also included a request to be annexed into the city, were approved Tuesday evening by the Gainesville City Council.
7.77-acres between Limestone Parkway and Tapawingo Drive are now a part of the City of Gainesville following a unanimous vote to bring the property just east of Cleveland Highway into the city limits.
The application from Optum Development to construct 36 upscale town homes had nineteen conditions attached to it, but differences between the developer and area residents were, for the most part, ironed-out before the measure was called for a vote.
Gainesville’s Deputy Director of Community and Economic Development, Matt Tate, told city council members Tuesday evening, “During the past two weeks city representatives have had the opportunity to have further discussions with the applicant.”
Tate said a representative of the neighbors who spoke in opposition to the project when it first appeared before the city council last month and was subsequently tabled, was also consulted and he suggested amending two of the exiting eighteen conditions plus the addition of a nineteenth condition.
Tate said, “With all this we have hope that we have come to a happy medium in some way.”
Gainesville attorney Steve Gilliam, representing the applicant, told council members when his turn to speak arrived, “You’ve heard the three conditions…we agreed to those three conditions. So we ask that you take that into consideration and vote in favor of this annexation and rezoning.”
Two individuals spoke during public comment and asked for the council’s decision to be delayed until other details of the project could be discussed, but the city council decided to proceed with the vote and the annexation was approved unanimously while the rezoning request passed by a 5-1 margin with Councilman Sam Couvillon dissenting.
HOSPITAL GETS GREEN LIGHT TO PROCEED WITH EXPANSION
The second rezoning application approved Tuesday evening by the Gainesville City Council involves plans by the Northeast Georgia Medical Center to add more than 925,000-square feet to its Gainesville campus.
Northeast Georgia Health System CEO and President Carol Burrell began the presentation to city council. “You’re going to hear in more detail that this has been several years in the planning, and is consistent with our long range master plan for the Gainesville campus.”
“When this project is completed the Gainesville campus will have a total of 749 beds, making it the third largest hospital in the State of Georgia,” Burrell said. “Today the Gainesville Emergency Department treats well over 100,000 patients and is the fifth busiest ER in the state. This new emergency footprint will allow us to treat up to 140,000 patients on an annual basis.”
Burrell said design and planning for the massive expansion was significantly influenced by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and now includes features that weren’t initially considered several years ago. “The knowledge that we have gained through this experience has provided the opportunity to plan for a very different future,” Burrell stated.
The only comments made in opposition to the application concerned the location of the Central Energy Facility (CEF), a vital component to powering and purifying the new patient tower. It will be constructed on Sherwood Park Drive and is adjacent to several existing medical offices.
Dr. Ryan Vaughn is a pediatric dentist whose office is on Sherwood Park Drive and near the new CEF. He said he has been on staff with the hospital for thirteen years. “I stand in opposition to this not because of the actual North Patient Tower. The problem I have…is the size of the industrial Central Energy Facility.”
“It will completely change the complexion of that area,” Vaughn said. “Also, all those office there treat children, elderly and Autistic patients...but my main concern was exacerbated yesterday by the rainfall.”
Vaughn was referring to the record-setting volume of rain that fell across the area on Monday.
Vaughn showed city council members photos he had taken the day before, vividly illustrating the flooding on Sherwood Park Drive, something he says happens at least once a year. The storm water in the photos, according to Vaughn, was three feet deep.
“Yesterday the lot where the Central Energy Facility will sit was a lake,” Vaughn stated. “Something needs to be done with that area because you can’t have flooding in an industrial power plant.”
Tate returned to the podium to answer questions form city council about the stormwater issue and said, “I don’t know that I can address the existing issues that they face right now…the engineering has not been fully done on this so it would be hard for me to answer…but it certainly would be designed (properly).”
The applicant’s Civil Engineer took the podium and explained that a plan was being constructed for handling storm water runoff with the use of three large underground detention ponds and that there would not be any problems with runoff that could not be resolved.
The rezoning necessary for the project was approved unanimously.
