Loganville City Council to vote on store project

By Jim Thompson – the Walton Tribune

This site plan shows the proposed layout for a Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store and an associated commercial building on a 3.61-acre tract along Brand Road. A Tennessee-based real estate development firm is seeking zoning variances from the city of Loganville to facilitate the project. The Loganville City Council will consider those requests in August. M2 Group via City of Loganville

The need for the color renderings became clear to representatives of GBT Realty Corporation after Thursday’s meeting of the Loganville Planning Commission as they faced questions and comments from Loganville City Council members Lisa Newberry and Keith Colquitt, following a set of split commission decisions on the variance requests.

In a brief interview after speaking with the GBT Realty representatives, Newberry said a Sprouts Farmers Market – the specialty grocery chain features fresh, natural and organic foods arranged in a farmstand-style layout – would be “a good thing for Loganville.”

Colquitt added that a Sprouts Farmers Market would attract a different type of grocery customer than the more traditional grocery stores in the city.

Sprouts Farmers Markets currently operates 500 stores in 25 states. Of that total, the chain currently lists 17 stores in Georgia, including one in nearby Lawrenceville, as well as a number spread across metropolitan Atlanta, and one in Augusta.

Commenting on her informal discussion with GBT Realty representatives, which included questions about the proposed site layout, about how closely GBT Realty would stick with the site plan it presented Thursday, and whether the space proposed for other businesses was really necessary, Newberry explained, “I just want to make sure we are building better” in Loganville.

Newberry, a driving force in the ongoing consultant-facilitated initiative to develop a new zoning ordinance for the city, has been a consistent critic of the devolution of planning and zoning processes in the city. Recent months have seen developers change proposals on the fly in front of the planning commission and the city council, and in some cases not building what they represented as their project.

Newberry was told Thursday that GBT Realty would build exactly what it presents to the city. During the planning commission meeting, Kelly Hiett, GBT Realty’s development manager, said the variance requests were being made simply to address topographic constraints, as well as the odd shape of the 3.61-acre tract – one of its boundaries is a sharp curve in Oak Grove Road, and it backs up into a wetland area at the other end – in order to maximize the use of the space.

The proposed project, Hiett said, will be “very difficult to build without considerations or concessions” as sought with the requested zoning variances.