LETTER TO EDITOR: A Dawson County Resident’s Comments on the ETOWAH VILLAGE (aka Avalon/400) Development

By a Long Time Dawson County Resident

Publishers Clarification: The following letter is in regard to the 975+/- acre Mixed Use Village proposed by Dawson Village Partners, with 3/4 of  Million Square Feet of Office and Retail Space + over 2700 High-Density Housing Units to stretch from Hwy 400 westward across the Etowah River to Etowah River Rd, north of Hwy 53.  It is to be voted on in the Commissioner’s Exectuve Session Thursday May 16, 2019.  All opposed should show up at the meeting and be heard, or seen.

Below is a letter from a long time Dawson County Resident that I am publishing with his permission.


This in not about progress for Dawson County. This is a nightmare for those that live here now. This is about people who want to make money and will stop at nothing to bulldoze over us here at the moment to make it. Ask them if they are going to improve Lumpkin Campground Road. It needs to be a four lane with turning lanes from GA 400 to the round a bout on Dawson Forest Rd. The big cluster of housing approved by a previous board of commissioners is just a couple a hundred yards down the road and that board was so happy to destroy our quality of life that I doubt they will be required to install turning lanes into it going both ways for the traveling public.

This plan has been presented so far without any type of traffic studies, noise studies, crime studies, fire safety studies, or any environmental studies. The land in question is adjacent to creeks and tributaries, impacting the overall watershed. The Planning Commission based it’s recommendation of denial on the impact the development would have on the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens, and the environmental impact on the Etowah River and flood plain.

In a public information meeting in April, the Project Engineer said the project will take 10-15 years to complete and would be constructed in five phases. Well with our country divided like it is I doubt if the investors will survive that period of time, so now we have another GOLDCREEK.

Please do not fall for the part about the development for seniors, this is nothing but a legal statement made by any developer because there is no enforcement, they will sell to whomever has the money. In a short period of time some of the seniors living in Dawson County will be forced to move in with their children because they cannot afford to pay the increased taxes because of this inappropriate development. The children cannot afford to help them because this inappropriate development has driven the children’s taxes so high they cannot help their parents pay their taxes and still raise their children. It has already happened in Forsyth County.

You may think you are increasing our tax base without a tax increase for us. OK ask around in Forsyth County I know you will get an education on that. The information I received from a retired superintendent from here they increased the school taxes a million dollars a year, they blame the cost on rapid development before the needed infrastructure Which infrastructure the present residents had to pay for. This is all about people who do not live in this county making money and leaving the cost to present citizens.

They like to brag about building us a fire station whoop DE dew. This station will not cost but a fraction of the amount we have to spend on a much needed ambulance and firetruck to serve this development alone. Of course they are not going to pay a penny for the cost of EMT and firemen to man this station either. How about law enforcement? Has anyone checked with our sheriff department to see how much their budget will increase for at least a couple more cars or more and about a half dozen new officers or more.

We need jobs like manufacturing to pay enough money and benefits to pay a mortgage payment, car payment, recreation and quality education for their children. Not, what the chamber has been bragging about for what they helped bring in on each side of GA 400 at Dawson Forrest Rd. and other small business which pays about fifteen dollars an hour and then when the leaser has the cost of their building paid off I doubt you will find any low paid employees making fifteen dollars per hour.

NOW, if you have ever attempted to enter GA 53 from Etowah River Rd. I respectfully request you do so. I have four return receipt, good faith letters I sent to GDOT, about this intersection. another citizen gathered over two thousand signatures and delivered to them in Atlanta requesting a traffic light. The chairman of the board of the GDOT as that time graduated from Dawson County High School told the citizen who delivered the signatures it was the largest number of signatures that had ever been delivered to the GDOT. The GDOT showed us their appreciation by increasing the speed limit from forty five miles per hour to fifty five miles per hour and they now travel from 60 to 70 miles per hour of course all of my letters remained unanswered. But I will be happy to testify and provide my letters in a court of law if it will help a citizen who has be maimed for life or family of a deceased member killed at this intersection. You have a good friend of mines son who serves as an alternate to your planning and zoning board and lives at this intersection, ask him. It is suicide to try to turn left on 53 from his driveway or Etowah River Road. Will you require the developers install a traffic light, I doubt it.

They say they plan on making a play ground at the Etowah River, with canoes, picnic areas and etc, They will strip the vegetation and build houses fifty feet off off of the water four foot off of the ground.  Remember we get our water about a mile down stream on that river. I hope you do not have that lack of knowledge, but I am sure the developers do because their desire is MONEY and they could care less about us having a quality drink of water.

OUR Creator gave us Dawson County and the Etowah River to respect and enjoy, not to disrespect and destroy.

If you don’t remember anything else I have said, I beg you to remember this, “here is your country. Cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interest skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”
I have quoted; Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States.


Publisher’s Note: I spend about a half hour on the phone with the gentleman who wrote the above letter.  He read it to me on the phone.  Later we drove around about an hour in his pickup talking about the state of affairs here in the county, the mountains, and the world in general.   I was moved by his letter, and he has allowed me to publish it. More importantly he has reminded me of why I moved here 20 years ago.  I’m sick of Alanta, and sick of the sprawl, and sick of our elected officials that sell us “down the river” if you will pardon the pun.  We need to stop the unintelligent, unchecked development.  We are barely a quarter of the way through our 20 Year Comprehensive Development Plan, and the possibility that they are going to go off of it, and even consider this rezoning is a slap in the face of the Planning Commission, and the County Residents.  Let me copy an excerpt from this 238 Page 20 Year Plan, which was the result of great time, cost, and thought…

Dawson County held the required public hearngs and have involved the public in the development of the plan in a manner appropriate to the community’s dynamics and resources.”

This was in 2013, just six (6) years ago in a Long Range Plan that was supposed to last until 2033.  If the County Commissioners vote for any part of this rezoning, then they are sending a clear message that they DO NOT CARE about the wishes of the public they serve, nor do they respect the sincere hard work of those that served before them, and in other branches of our County Government. 

I am here to say loud and clear, that any Comissioner that casts a vote in favor of this development rezoning requests, is committing political suicide, and is casting a vote clearly AGAINST public wishes, and I will make sure that not a day goes by that the public is not continually reminded of the acts of said individuals.

PS… we are possibly heading into a recession in the next year, and I personally think this is just a scam to pump the collateral value of this land, then take out enormous loans, move a bunch of dirt around as a method of “washing the cash into their pockets”, wait for the recession, declare the project unviable, most of the money gone (again, washed nice and clean into shell company pockets) and then declare bankruptcy – leaving the land raped and scarred (like the Southern Catholic College Land before it – which hasn’t been touched in 10 years) and all the land foreclosed, dragging down property values for the entire area – again, and leaving the County in a declining Property Tax Base nightmare.  I mean – this is 2007 all over again… they are pumping land prices on fantasy developments, taking out enormous loans, and like last time they are going to skate away with the money when the recession hits.

But if for some chance I am wrong – then all the points in the original letter above still stand.  Either way this is a dumb idea for the county.

PPS… Also important to keep an eye on VR 19-03 – Landbridge Development LLC variance request for High Density (80 Apartment Units) development behind CVS and Krystal.  It is important to note that the Planning Commission suggested Denial of the Etowah Village Project, and they Denied the Landbridge Development Variance Request.  But neither is over until the Commissioners Deny also!  Come be heard, and help them to make the right decisions!*

The Etowah Village and Landbridge Development Plans and Packet Information can be found in this 51 Page Excerpted PDF

Peace,

david hopkins / publisher (and dawson county resident)


* I encourage the largest turnout this County has ever seen at this Thursday’s Commissioner’s Meeting.  We need to send a message on more than just this one development – we need to send a strong show of force regarding ALL of this sudden Development.  The BEST way for our County Commissioners to deal with this sudden influx of land raping developers, and this push north up out of Atlanta – is to stick to the 20 year plan – ALWAYS!  Every time we make an exception, we set a legal precedent for these developers to challenge in court.  Let’s show up at that meeting and send a clear signal to our Commissioners that we expect them to toe the line!

Thursday May 16, 2019 Work Session starts at 4:00pm.
Voting Session starts somewhere between 5:00pm to 6:00pm.  PLEASE show up!

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