Duluth, GA. Citizens Challenge Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart opponents challenge planning rulings [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Residents fighting a proposed Wal-Mart in Duluth filed an appeal Wednesday with the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals, said Chris Collins, senior planner in the city’s planning & development office.

Smart Growth Gwinnett, the group that sprang up to oppose the planned 27-acre development, and gathered 3,000 signatures of online support is challenging two rulings made by Shelley Stiebling, the city’s interim director of planning and development.

One ruling involved the pitch of the store’s roof. Duluth’s building ordinance requires commercial structures to have pitched roofs. Wal-Mart suggested an alternative that wouldn’t require as extreme a pitch.

The other involved building materials, Collins said. The city requires most retail stores to have masonry brick, but Wal-Mart wanted to use a faux brick.

Stiebling approved both changes.

The appeal will be heard by the Zoning Board of Appeals on Oct. 24, Collins said. Stiebling starts work as planning director for the city of Covington on Monday. But she said she’d return to defend her rulings to the zoning board.

“The first question that it will address is whether the right decision was made,” Collins said. “If they determine variances were needed, then Wal-Mart would have to apply again.”

If that happened, Collins said, those variances would probably be heard at the board’s Nov. 28 meeting.

Wal-Mart was to have appeared before the Zoning Board on Aug. 22 to request variances for its roof and landscaping plans. But when the city signed off on its redrawn designs on Aug. 14, Wal-Mart withdrew its variance requests.

Amid heated debate, the City Council imposed a six-month moratorium on large-scale developments on July 30. A few weeks later, Wal-Mart applied for a building permit, which the city denied. Most recently, the landowner notified the city that he plans to sue Duluth for $25 million. The city has 30 days to respond; it has not, as of yet.

Meanwhile, the city has hired a consulting firm to manage a study of large-scale development.

About 35 people attended a community workshop Tuesday — the first of several that are part of the study. The next meeting is Oct. 16, and the firm plans to present its findings to the City Council in November.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, September 13, 2007

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