The small meeting room at Greensboro City Hall was packed with 40 people and others were out in the parking lot, crowding the door attempting to hear or see.
It was the city Planning and Zoning Board meeting, and they were there to speak against the annexation of 364 acres of land across Highway 44 from the old Athens Tech building.
Grind Capital Group was back again before the board, asking for the land, still owned by local residents, to be brought into the city and zoned L-1 for light industrial.
The plan included five 60-foot-tall buildings with a combined total of approximately 2.66 million square feet when it was first brought up before the board last October. One of the buildings was listed at 1.25 million square feet alone.
The application included 1,065 parking spaces for employees and 506 spaces for trucks. A traffic impact study by A & R Engineering indicates the project would add 1,725 vehicles (cars or trucks) per day to South Main Street.
In October, the board approved the request with conditions. The plan was withdrawn to make the adjustments.
One required change was to also annex three adjacent residential properties into the city. Otherwise, the homes would become islands of county land completely surrounded by city land, which is prohibited by state law. The group was also told that the zoning they were requesting limits the size of buildings to 500,000 square feet, so the large building they proposed would have to change.
Fast forward to last Thursday. The developer was back with a request to also annex the three residential properties despite not being able to get 100 percent approval from the owners and residents. The law requires at least 60 percent approval, which they had. Grind Capital also agreed to keep the size of the buildings within the zoning limits.
But people were more focused on the increased traffic.
“We are consistently overpowered with trucks every single day,” said one resident who pointed out the project would be located between downtown and the interstate. “Our lovely hometown is full of wonderful businesses, and we have people who are coming every single day to enjoy that. If they can’t get here, we will shrivel up, and we desperately don’t want to do that.”
Another resident said his older home -built in the early 1900s - already shakes with the number of trucks driving through the city. One lady said she did not want big warehouses built right next to her home.
The Greene County Development Authority, which owns an industrial park across the street, said the project is too big for the land they want to rezone. Some suggested the developer take the plans down to Exit 138, where there is plenty of land.
The developer’s attorney told the board that more trucks come with land zoned commercial than light industrial and that the project fits in with the city’s comprehensive plan. He reminded the board that the project was approved in October with conditions they feel they have now satisfied.
Developer Justin Golshir told the board that tax revenues to the city would be in the “tens of millions of dollars.”
“We’re intending to market this for advanced manufacturing. Semi-conductor industries, electric vehicles, things of that nature.,” he said. “There are a lot of corporations all over that are trying to find sites of this size to set up those operations.”
At the end of the public hearing, the board voted to recommend denial to the city council. It was followed by applause. Later, Golshir indicated to the Lake Oconee News he still wants to find a solution.
“We’re open to ideas and suggestions from the community,” Golshir said. “We’re not coming in here saying ‘This is our way, and we don’t want to do anything else.’ We’re absolutely open to feedback and making modifications to the plan.”
Also, at the unusually busy P&Z meeting:
The all-new city sign ordinance which includes stricter regulations about political signs was unanimously approved. One restriction, prohibiting businesses from using A-type or “sandwich boards” to advertise on the sidewalk in front of their stores, was removed because of too much opposition by downtown merchants.
A rezoning request from Infamous Whiskey was also approved. Owner Lorenze Tremonti wants the building he purchased at 208 East Broad St. to be rezoned CPUD so he can build a distillery downtown.
Tremonti enthusiastically told the board, “I’ve completely fallen in love with this building and Greensboro.”
He said he plans to put at least $5 million into construction and setting up the distillery. He will start with seven employees, increasing to as many as 40 by year four or five.
The sign ordinance, distillery, and the light industrial development project must still be considered by the city council at meetings in April.