Gordon County residents fight proposed facility
Gordon County residents are fighting a proposed warehouse development planned for their community, arguing the 1.5-millionsquare-foot facility doesn’t fit into the rural character of the area.
“What it comes down to is noise pollution, light, traffic and safety,” said Keith Bodendorf, who lives near the proposed development. “You know, the common stuff. They’re turning a farm, surrounded by all rezoned-for-residential (properties), into an industrial park.”
As an engineer, Bodendorf said he thinks the developers of the Miller Ferry Road Industrial Facility want access to railroad tracks that border the property for transportation. According to their report, Gordon County Planning and Zoning Commission members have a lot of questions about the $160 million development, he said, while the whole neighborhood is against it.
Bodendorf said he understands the multiple industrial facilities being developed on Highway 41 in a growing community, but the Miller Ferry Road project is “in the middle of a residential area … it’s tough.”
South of Calhoun, the property is about a mile up a two-lane road west of Highway 41 and is currently an open field zoned for agricultural use. The proposal seeks to rezone the 112-acre property to light industrial.
A traffic impact study of the project said the complex would include two buildings and be completed by 2025. The study predicted there would be 2,498 daily vehicle trips in and out of the facility.
The developers of the facility, Thor Equities, could not
be reached for comment. Based in New York City, Thor Equities is an international real estate development, leasing and management firm with a property portfolio of $20 billion, according to its website.
Members of the planning commission could not be reached for comment, but Ursula Richardson, zoning administrator of Gordon County, said a Monday night meeting was rescheduled because a required planning document had not been submitted by the developer. More than 200 residents attended the meeting to testify, including Bodendorf.
The document, a regional impact study, is required for a large-scale development that is likely to have an impact beyond the single jurisdiction in which it occurs.
“We should have it (the impact study) in time for the next meeting,” Richardson said in a phone interview.
The upcoming planning commission meeting will be at 6 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Gem Theatre, 114 N. Wall St., Calhoun, Richardson said. The commission will take public comment at that meeting and give a recommendation to the Gordon County Board of Commissioners, which will make the final decision about the future of the development.
David Rodriquez was also at the postponed meeting Monday night. Outside the meeting, he said his property backs up to the proposed facility. The facility, he said, is part of a development boom that’s brought seven or eight new warehouses to the area since 2020.
He and his family moved to Gordon County about six years ago, he said, after his home in Cumming, Georgia, got “extremely busy.”
Rodriquez said he bought 17 acres for himself and his family to move out to the country and “do the whole ‘Green Acres’ plan.”
While he knew the area was growing, Rodriquez said he thought his property was “safe” because it was so far from Highway 41. According to his research, 34 homes border the proposed industrial property, and another 140 are within 2,500 feet of the facility, he said.
When CFL Flooring “mowed down” agricultural land to build a facility recently, Rodriquez said, he justified the development in his own mind because there were good jobs being created. But now, other nearby industrial facilities already open are still looking for tenants, he said.
“So why would you build another, the largest in all of Gordon County, bigger than Shaw Industries, 1.5 million square feet for more capacity that’s not even filled up?” Rodriquez said.
The jobs argument doesn’t apply, Rodriquez said he believes, because the warehouses already up and running are already understaffed.
He said most of the people at the postponed meeting lived near the proposed facility, but Rodriquez said he wants more of the community to attend the next meeting and tell the commission this development isn’t a good fit for the area. He and his neighbors are sharing information and organizing on Facebook.
Rodriquez said community members should have been fighting the area’s development boom from the get-go because, he said, when you give an inch, they take a mile.
“And sometimes that mile is in your backyard,” he said.