Potential Impact

Although it won’t come up for rezoning until some time next year, a $600 million retail and residential project proposed by the Sembler Co. for a busy north DeKalb intersection has sparked concern in some quarters that the county isn’t doing enough to plan for the impact of a development of that size.

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“It may be a great thing for DeKalb if it’s developed in the right way, but nobody’s doing anything to determine that,” says Jeff Rader, an urban planner who was elected Tuesday to represent the area as the District 2 commissioner.

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He says there needs to be a feasibility study that considers traffic, density and water resources for that site before it is opened up for development proposals. “Right now, it’s being handled like a private real estate transaction, which is not good public policy,” Rader says.

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The project first surfaced publicly at the end of September when the DeKalb school board was told Sembler had offered $64 million to buy a 31-acre property along North Druid Hills Road that contains three school facilities and a large football stadium. By then, the Florida-based developer had already signed a contract with a private owner to buy 70 acres of adjoining land along Briarcliff Road that serves as home to the sprawling Park at Briarcliff apartments. In a separate deal, Sembler agreed to buy the land lease and the apartment complex from the DeKalb Housing Authority for $56 million.

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The school board has not yet scheduled a vote on the purchase offer.

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At 100 acres, the mixed-use Sembler project would be more than twice as large as the company’s successful Edgewood Retail District, which opened last year on Moreland Avenue. Early proposals call for more than 1 million square feet of retail, office and restaurant space and about 3,000 apartments, condominiums and town homes.

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Like her successor Rader, outgoing Commissioner Gale Walldorff thinks the proposed Sembler project is sizable enough to warrant special scrutiny before it advances to the point of a rezoning hearing. “This project is of the magnitude of an Atlantic Station, so we have to look at the potential impact,” she says.

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At the commission’s most recent meeting on Oct. 24, Walldorff advanced a resolution calling for the school board, housing authority and county commission to form a task force to create a development strategy for the entire block of publicly controlled land at the intersection.

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However, county CEO Vernon Jones sharply criticized Walldorff’s resolution as meddling with market forces. “I don’t think it’s the government’s role to prevent or discourage a private company from buying land,” Jones said. “It’s important that we have the type of economic development projects that create jobs and create a commercial tax base to bring in revenue.”

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The resolution passed unanimously, but some observers question why Jones seems such a strong advocate for Sembler.

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Sembler is also seeking to rezone 50 acres on Peachtree Road in Brookhaven next to Oglethorpe University for a $400 million mixed-use development that would include a 20-story condo tower. That project comes up for a final commission vote later this month, after having been added to a previously closed zoning schedule.

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“It makes me wonder why the wheels are so greased for this one developer in particular,” says state Rep. Mike Jacobs, D-Atlanta, who represents the Briarcliff area. “Something about this seems fishy.”

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Jacob cites the sudden firing of housing authority Director Bettye Davis in mid-October, just days after she had granted an AJC open-records request to see the details of Sembler’s offer to the agency.

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“When I heard about that, I knew suspicious minds would see a connection” between Davis’ dismissal and Sembler’s proposal, says the company’s local spokesman, Angelo Fuster, who adds that he’s not aware of any such link. A lawyer for the housing authority told the AJC that Davis wasn’t fired for handing over the information.

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Reached by phone, Jones reiterated his distaste for Walldorff’s resolution: “You should ask her what she has against Sembler.”

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Jones says his goal is to expand the county’s tax revenues by welcoming such commercial development as the Sembler proposal.

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Besides, Jones says, Sembler cannot get its rezoning without an extended period of study by the Atlanta Regional Commission. In addition, DeKalb bylaws require the support of both the local district commissioner and the “super-district” commissioner — in this case, Kathie Gannon, who could not be reached for comment — for any rezoning to gain approval.

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Sembler is ready for an “exhaustive public discussion” over the project, Fuster says, and expects to modify its plans once it enters zoning discussions with the county and the ARC. “The mix is likely to change some, but not drastically,” he says.

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Fuster, who has served as a political consultant to Jones, says the CEO’s vocal support for the company is not unusual for a politician eager to grow his local tax base. “You could say the same about Mayor Franklin, who attended the ribbon-cuttings of our Edgewood and Lindbergh projects,” he says.