Cobb commission rejects plan for thrift store

A proposed thrift store was denied 5-0 on Feb. 18 by the Cobb County Board of Commissioners for the Mableton Walk/Publix shopping center.

Although she calls her- self “a thrift store junkie,” Commissioner Lisa Cupid, who represents that district, said she is concerned that a donation trailer for the thrift shop was in the parking lot already “before our decision.”

Cupid said that “sends a very negative message to the community.”

Applicant attorney Kevin Moore said the proposed thrift store, in a now empty end cap, would benefit Young

Life in the 11,000 square- foot space to be operated by Atlanta Project Youth Program. Moore said the group would spend $800,000 to renovate this space. Although second-hand items would be sold in the store, all of the items would be received in the rear of the store and would be manned, with no outside display of merchan- dise allowed, Moore said.

However, Cupid said peo- ple are disregarding the county’s ban on dropping off items at thrift stores around the county.

Ray Thomas, chair of the Mableton Improvement Coalition, also requested the denial, showing the com- missioners a picture of the thrift store’s donation trailer already stationed in the Publix parking lot.

“That trailer definitely is unsightly and needs to go away,” Commissioner JoAnn Birrell agreed.

A Mableton resident, Teresa Bailey said, “We don’t want Floyd Road to become another Veterans Memorial Highway.”

Even though the county staff recommended approval for the thrift store, Zoning Division Manager John Peder- son answered Commissioner Keli Gambrill’s concern by saying that code enforce- ment could be sent to check on whether the trailer has a parking permit.

RAY THOMAS / MABLETON IMPROVEMENT COALITION Although the thrift store decision had not been made yet by the County Commission, a donation truck for the justdenied thrift store is in place in the Mableton Walk/Publix shopping center.