Community Corner

Proposed QT Site Hits Snag With City Planners

City reverses decision to split property owner's site into two separate parcels

City planning officials have reversed a decision that could derail QuikTrip Corp.'s controversial plans to build 5,700-square-foot convenience store and gas station in Ormewood Park.

In a letter dated May 25, Charletta Wilson Jacks, director of the planning office, wrote the decision to split the commercial lot on Moreland Avenue between Ormewood Avenue and Hall Street into two separate parcels violates a city regulation regarding street frontages.

Gobind L. Madan, who assembled several lots on Moreland's west side between Ormewood Avenue and Hall Street over two decades, obtained city approval to split or replat the assembled parcels into two commercial properties.

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The first tract — 1.161 acres and fronting Moreland Avenue — would be the site where the QT would be built. The second tract is 0.111 acres.

That second tract is crucial to the project because city regulations forbid any gas stations from being constructed within 100 feet of any adjoining residential, single-family properties.

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Because the proposed QT site abutted another commercial tract, the smaller 0.111 parcel, and not the homes on Ormewood Avenue directly, that 100-foot buffer rule did not apply.

But city code requires that smaller parcel to have 20 feet of side yardarge because there are no intervening streets between it and the residential homes, Jacks wrote in her letter to project consultant Jonathan Cox and his Duluth firm, Wolverton & Associates.

The "side yard" rule also says that the 20-foot buffer can't be paved, used for parking, storage or loading and must remain in its natural state.

"The approved replat shows the 20' side yard along its Ormewood Avenue street frontage," Jacks' letter reads. "However, the approved tract 2 does not provide the required 20 feet along its Hall Street frontage; nor can it be provided by virtue of its less than 20 feet lot width along Hall Street.  Accordingly, REP-11-001 was approved in error and the creation of this new boundary and the resulting new lot in the City's records was not authorized by the Code."

Madan, an accountant who sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last December, has 30 days to appeal.

The project is supported by some homeowners and businesses who say the site, which is home to Jiffy Grocery at 731 Moreland Ave. and Madan's own Liberty Tax Service franchise at 1160 Ormewood Ave. is in need of revitalization.

But a vocal majority of Ormewood Park residents and nearby communities such as East Atlanta, opposed it.

In voicing their displeasure, opponents say they're not against QT, identifying other commercial lots on Moreland they say are more suitable for the project.

Building it at Moreland and Ormewood avenues would be too disruptive to that intersection, opponents say. The increased volume of vehicles, coupled with the long traffic light, would force QT patrons into the neighborhood's side streets to avoid waiting.

Ormewood Avenue also is a "safe route" meaning it's designated as the roadway for children who either walk or ride their bicycles to school.

Increased volume of motor vehicle traffic, would make it more dangerous for children to walk on that street, opponents said.


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