Couple of things
- You want to know what this writer really means? That two folks who I stereotypically and simplistically think would disagree with me wrote something I agree with. Wanna take a bet that he also loves what Bill Cosby's been saying the past few years?
- Speaking of letters, Ann Teague says she's not racist, but her letter actually is loaded with some implications which don't really help her out too much.
- I'll probably go into this a bit later, but the Athens-Clarke County Commission recently took up the issue of whether or not to rezone a parcel of land located behind the Chevron on Barnett Shoals Road and is in Green Acres neighborhood. It's a an odd-shaped parcel and a developer wants to build an office park there. The problem is, it would isolate two existing houses, remove one and replace it with a driveway, offer only one entrance into the complex off of a residential street and, well, put an office building smack in the middle of a neighborhood. The thing is ... compared to previous proposals for this 4.5 acre chunk of land, it's the better one (or, as Kelly Girtz referred to it, the 'less worse' one). Apparently a few years back,someone had pitched a 19-house mini-subdivision for that spot. It's going to be an interesting issue to look at.
- It's nothing fancy, but Blake profiles Jane Kidd and looks at her candidacy for the DPG chair. That election is tomorrow, and it appears to be between her and Mike Berlon.
- I'm also hoping to go into the debate over Sunday Sales too. The Athens Banner-Herald has a story on the divide in the alcohol sales community, while the folks at Peach Pundit have been following this pretty good.
- Childhood celebrities grow up!
- I agree with the latter point in Matthew Yglesias's argument here ... that is it's kinda silly to be discussing policy specifics for presidential candidates in January 2007 when they wouldn't be able to actually govern for two more years. Hence why I think the criticism in the comments at Talking Points Memo regarding Barack Obama's call for universal health care of some kind is terribly misguided.
- A bobcat attack? Bobcats? Rabid ones at that? Man. That would really be a lousy day right there.
- Speaking of letters, Ann Teague says she's not racist, but her letter actually is loaded with some implications which don't really help her out too much.
- I'll probably go into this a bit later, but the Athens-Clarke County Commission recently took up the issue of whether or not to rezone a parcel of land located behind the Chevron on Barnett Shoals Road and is in Green Acres neighborhood. It's a an odd-shaped parcel and a developer wants to build an office park there. The problem is, it would isolate two existing houses, remove one and replace it with a driveway, offer only one entrance into the complex off of a residential street and, well, put an office building smack in the middle of a neighborhood. The thing is ... compared to previous proposals for this 4.5 acre chunk of land, it's the better one (or, as Kelly Girtz referred to it, the 'less worse' one). Apparently a few years back,someone had pitched a 19-house mini-subdivision for that spot. It's going to be an interesting issue to look at.
- It's nothing fancy, but Blake profiles Jane Kidd and looks at her candidacy for the DPG chair. That election is tomorrow, and it appears to be between her and Mike Berlon.
- I'm also hoping to go into the debate over Sunday Sales too. The Athens Banner-Herald has a story on the divide in the alcohol sales community, while the folks at Peach Pundit have been following this pretty good.
- Childhood celebrities grow up!
- I agree with the latter point in Matthew Yglesias's argument here ... that is it's kinda silly to be discussing policy specifics for presidential candidates in January 2007 when they wouldn't be able to actually govern for two more years. Hence why I think the criticism in the comments at Talking Points Memo regarding Barack Obama's call for universal health care of some kind is terribly misguided.
- A bobcat attack? Bobcats? Rabid ones at that? Man. That would really be a lousy day right there.
posted by Jmac at 7:34 AM
15 Comments:
Rapid better than rabid...
Damnit.
I like how Ms. Teague refers to a doubling in 5 years as "exponential" growth. Unless the population went from 2 to 4, that's not exponential growth.
If you have a child attending a public school full of those children, as I do[...]
I'm sure she grips her children's hands tightly as they walk by those children on the way into school. Not a racist at all...
Not to be a bastard... no, wait, how can I not?
Exponential growth in this instance means that the growth % is itself growing at a constant rate. So, if the growth rate is increasing by a constant power of .2, then the population could be growing "exponentially." Of course, you already knew that.
And, Ann Teague is dumb. I would wager that quite a few of "those" kids are not illegals. If they are born here, they're Citizenry whether the folks up in Gainesville (seriously, people... Gainesville. Have you been? I'm just sayin') like it or not. While these children may face additional struggles in school, due largely to the fact that they usually speak little to no English upon enrollment because their parents only speak Spanish, the No Child Left Behind Act (or as I like to refer to it, the No Child Gets Ahead Act) has dismissed this basic fact as irrelevant when ranking schools based on the CRCT scores that all children must endure. You see, when these children actually learn English, they are far more advanced educationally than Ann Teague's children, though I am making the assumption that her children do not, in fact, speak two languages.
And, Stephanie? As a Meth addict? I kinda saw that one coming.
Alright, I've just looked at those properties on the tax map online. Why do they want access to a residential street when the property fronts Barnett Shoals Road? And which house do they want to rezone? It's not "smack" in the middle of a neighborhood -- it's a commercial property fronting a commercial corridor, but it would be really weird to put that driveway between houses. Maybe if I was an affected house I would want that to tip the dominoes and give me the chance to rezone commercial.
i'm a realist-
Point taken. I was thinking of a one-time exponential change, rather than an growth in the growth percentage.
Of course, she still offers no statistic that proves exponential growth. We would need to know what the historical growth rate has been. My point was that people use "exponential" just to mean "a whole friggin' lot" as though they don't know that it's a mathematical descriptor. (Which I clearly misuse myself.)
Why do they want access to a residential street when the property fronts Barnett Shoals Road?
They were unable to gain the proper access to Barnett Shoals and explored alternative options. They found a seller in the third house down on the right on Forest Drive. The plan would remove that house and replace with the driveway, which would be left-turn only for exiting vehicles.
And which house do they want to rezone?
To my understanding, it would be the third house slated for removal and then the property behind those three houses which would become Athens East Office Park.
While I may have been too dramatic in saying it was 'smack in the middle of the neighborhood,' the point remains that it's a substantial piece of property slated to become commercial that is located inside a residential neighborhood (and, for what the proposed zoning would be, is fairly deep in that neighborhood).
The bottom line on this property . . . If the office park is not approved by the M&C (which looks likely after the work session last night), the developer will re-submit his original plan. The original plan calls for 19!!! houses crammed into the 5 acre tract around 1 cul-de-sac (with the possibility of more).
The developer doesn't want to build houses, he wants to build the office park. The neighbors in Green Acres don't want 19 houses, they'd prefer an office park.
There is no question that SOMETHING is gonna get built. The developer could build 19 houses under the current RS-5 zoning and only need administrative approval from the planning dept. (no M&C or planning comm. input). He doesn't want to do this, because it is contrary to the wishes of the neighbors, but he might not have a choice.
There is a lot going on here, and it's been brewing for a long time. The development is not perfect, in fact far from it. But it is MUCH better than super-dense housing crammed onto a tiny lot. We're forced to accept the lesser of two evils . . .
Right dave. Compared to what the alternative is - which is cramming in almost 20 houses onto a parcel of land less than five acres - the office park seems to be, like you said, the lesser of two evils.
It ain't perfect by any means, but if the neighborhood folks are content with it - and something has to be done with that property - this is the better option.
I would be interested in knowing more about the access problem on their public frontage. I would guess that someone sold off the gas station lots as outparcels of the lot in question. That owner knew what he or she was doing at the time, so it should be understood that there isn't any entitlement to gain access elsewhere. Of course, the neighbors and commissioners are free to decide that the proposal is a good idea.
Does anyone know what kind of office park is proposed? Is it sensible, or is it a high-end development that will sit vacant?
Adrian,
To answer your questions about access - two access points. One on Barnett Shoals, the other on the newly re-aligned Forest Rd. According to the plan, the B.Shoals access will be right-turn only entrance and exit. Limited and controlled, in theory. It does not line up with College Station - it's just to the south of that intersection.
The developer is removing the third house in on Forest Rd. to create the 2nd access point. This will be left-turn only exiting from the complex, leading to the forthcoming light at the Forest/B.Shoals intersection. The theory is this will stop excess traffic from entering Green Acres.
The outparcel gas stations are staying put. They are not part of the development or land deal.
I think the development will be primarily medical-office. The elevations look typical, nothing outrageous. The buildings will be built in phases as needed, but the infrastructure (parking, drainage etc.) goes in completely first.
I need to correct my earlier post -the work session I watched and referenced was pre-recorded (I'll check next time). We may be closer to M&C approval than was indicated at that earlier meeting.
David
This will be left-turn only exiting from the complex, leading to the forthcoming light at the Forest/B.Shoals intersection.
Are there plans to add a light there? It's not very easy to take a left from Forest onto Barnett Shoals.
Yes, they are adding a light to the intersection. It's part of realigning Forest road with the old Kroger entrance.
David
You mean the realigning that added a weird triangle in the middle of the Forest Road intersection and actually ended up making it much more difficult to turn in there? I'm in favor of it in theory. I'm not sure it's been great in practice so far.
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