Community worries about new facility next to terminal

About 50 members of the Clarkdale community and Cureton Woods subdivision showed up Nov. 5 to complain to Austell City Council members about their unanimous Sept. 10 decision to sell 54 acres of city property for $4.6 million to Taylor & Mathis of Atlanta.

The 138-home Clarkdale Historic District was built around 1931 off Austell Powder Springs Road and near the former Coats & Clark Threadmill Complex, which Austell owns. The district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is not in the Austell city limits.

According to City Attorney Scott Kimbrough, Taylor & Mathis will buy the city property at the corner of Austell Powder Springs Road and Dr. Luke Glenn Garrett Jr. Memorial Highway northwest of the city’s fire station and next to the Nor- folk Southern Railway intermodal terminal. (Intermodal means to provide transfer of freight from ship to train to trucks for final delivery.) A facility to be constructed by Taylor & Mathis will be leased to serve the terminal.

During the Nov. 5 coun- cil meeting, Mayor Pro-Tem Ollie Clemons, in the absence of Mayor Joe Jerkins, offered more details:

■ City officials were sought out by Taylor & Mathis to buy this property that is zoned Light Industrial already. “It’s not that it was needed. (The land) was just sitting there.”

■ It was “not a requirement” for the city to notify Clarkdale or Cureton Woods residents of this pending decision.

■ Austell’s purchase-sale agreement with Taylor & Mathis is “not something that can be stopped.”

■ Six months are involved for “due diligence,” including a traffic study, and “no idea” on the construction timeline.

■ The end user is not known, and there are “no restrictions on what they can build.”

■ The 550,000 square- foot facility is “a specula- tive build” with “no tenant.”

■ The $30 million facility should yield 150 to 200 “high-wage” jobs.

■ A 50-foot berm buffer and an additional 17 acres of city property will separate the development from Cureton Woods and the Clarkdale Historic District.

■ There will be no truck traffic on Austell Powder Springs Road.

■ Further truck traffic and how much more light and noise are not known.

■ The $4.6 million profit will go first to pay city debt, then possibly for a Quiet Zone in the city.

■ Clarkdale and Cure- ton Woods concerns can be directed to Austell offi- cials for communication with Taylor & Mathis.

AJC FILE PHOTO The Clarkdale Historic District was built around 1931 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.