Residents Concerned Trash Traffic Would Spur Wrecks on Highway 20

Loganville community activist Herman McCart has been campaigning against a rezoning that would bring a sanitation company to the corner of Highway 20 and McCullers Road in Walton County. He said an accident that happened on the opposite corner on Tuesday afternoon is a perfect example of why he felt the need to embark on this campaign.

“There was a Wreck at 3:30 today (7 Feb 2012) at the Hwy 20 at McCullers Rd intersection - where Walton County is to vote on allowing Southern Sanitation Waste Collection to park 10 and up to 15 waste collection trucks over on the opposite corner lot,” McCart said. “This is already an unsafe intersection and Southern Sanitation Waste Collection Trucks will only make it more unsafe.”

McCart took photographs of the wreck and circulated them to concerned citizens who he has been keeping abreast of developments with the project.

According to the rezone application, Buddy Johnson has plans to take a foreclosed property of about 3.8 acres, at 5395 Georgia Highway 20, Loganville, and use it as an office with additional outdoor storage for equipment. This would be for his business on Rosebud Road in Gwinnett County - .

Johnson there are no plans for a transfer station at this location. It is to be used as a company office and light maintenance on the trash haulers that will be parked there when not in use. McCart had helped lead the charge last year to prevent Johnson and Timmy Shelnutt develop a waste transfer station at another property on Highway 20 just behind North American Tree.

After several County Commission and planning meetings, the voted to deny the rezoning necessarily for the project to go anywhere. The Planning Commission hs approved the plan, but it was shot down by the Board of Commissioners after a study by the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission. The study concluded the proposal was inconsistent with the land use and would have a negative impact on the nearby environment.

Johnson’s new plan had several self-imposed conditions by the applicant and the Planning Commission added several more of their own. However, at the Feb. 2 meeting they decided to postpone a vote on the application until the March 7 meeting. In the meantime, there will be a community meeting on this matter at 7. p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, at the Loganville Courthouse, 2nd floor, 605 Tom Brewer Road in Loganville.

Walton County District 2 Commissioner Chuck Bagley said the meeting is being sponsored by the law firm of Smith, Gambrell & Russell with Dennis Webb Jr. presiding.

“The purpose is to answer questions and present facts regarding the rezoning request,” Bagley said.

The following are the self-imposed conditions submitted by Johnson should the rezoning be approved.

1.    There shall be no waste transfer station or solid waste landfill on the Subject Property;

2.    The Owner shall not wash out the refuse hoppers located on the rear of the refuse trucks while said trucks are on the Subject Property.  The Applicant shall be permitted, however, to wash the exteriors and cabs of the refuse trucks while said trucks are on the Subject Property;

3.    The Owner shall install Leyland Cypress on the Subject Property for the purpose of creating a vegetative screen. The Leyland Cypress shall be planted in two (2) locations: (a) along the western side of the Subject Property, starting north of the existing driveway onto McCullers Road, as depicted on the boundary survey prepared for “DAB Properties” by Alcovy Surveying and Engineering, Inc., dated December 29, 2011 and submitted with the application (the “Survey”); and (b) along the northern boundary of the Subject Property where it abuts tax parcel C0060026000;

4.    The Owner shall create and maintain a vector control plan on the Subject Property, said plan detailing the program for domesticated animal control as well as rodent and insect extermination. An outside exterminating company shall be utilized to exterminate insects and rodents and said service shall be provided on a monthly basis and increased as situations warrant; and

5.    The Owner shall be entitled to use the already developed Subject Property “as is” and in the configuration reflected on the Survey, with the exception that Owner may be required to install storm water management and water quality features on the Subject Property.