QuikTrip In Ormewood Park: A Case Of NIMBY Or Are There Genuine Concerns?

The controversial project that would bring a QuikTrip to Moreland and Ormewood avenues has generated a lot of discussion from homeowners and residents in Southeast Atlanta as well as other parts of the city.

Opponents to the Ormewood Park project say this isn't a case of "Not In My Backyard;" there are genuine concerns with bringing a 5,700-square-foot convenience store.

Putting a QuikTrip at that corner would increase traffic tie-ups and force motorists to drive through the side streets of Ormewood Park. What's more, Ormewood Avenue is a "safe route," meaning it's designated as the roadway for children who either walk or ride their bicycles to school.

The opposition isn't about QuikTrip as a company.

It's a point that Steve Norman, president of the South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development stressed Tuesday night at the May meeting of the East Atlanta Community Association.

"Our mantra is: great company, bad location," Norman said.

"We are all for development on that lot," he said of 731 Moreland Ave., currently home to the Jiffy Grocery store and a Liberty Tax Service franchise behind it. "It's been an eyesore for years and years and years. We're just hoping that it's going to be something that's more neighborhood-friendly."

Opponents say there are other sites on Moreland where the project would be better suited and less disruptive to neighboring residential communities. Ronald Lall, chairman of the SouthStar Community Development Corp., which advocates for several communities along the Moreland Avenue corridor regarding residential and commercial development, told EACA members he's had discussions with two property owners of other sites whom he said expressed interest.

He declined to name them, however.

Norman, as SAND's representative, sought and won EACA's help in opposing the project.

To that end, EACA's membership overwhelmingly approved the two motions SAND proposed, though the votes were not unanimous:

• Collaborate with SAND and SouthStar Community Development Corp. — which advocates for several communities along the Moreland Avenue corridor — to help QT find a more suitable site on the Moreland Avenue.
• Partner with SAND and SouthStar to lobby Atlanta City Hall to enact the zoning recommendations in the $120,000 South Moreland Livable Centers Initiative study, which was approved in 2008.

The project would bring QuikTrip south of I-20 on a corridor of Moreland that already has a number of fuel stations, including Citgo, Shell and BP.

Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip Corp., which has filed an application with the city for a building permit, would construct its "Gen III" store, which at 5,700 square feet, is 1,200 square feet larger than existing stores.

The company's plans call for entry and exit points to the QuikTrip to be on Ormewood and Hall avenues, which are city-owned roadways, not Moreland, which is a state road.

"We continue to respond to those who may have concern, and thank those who are supporting our plan," company spokesman Mike Thornbrugh wrote in an e-mail response Wednesday in response to questions from EastAtlanta.Patch.com. "The Gen III concept is being greeted very positive.

"We continue to use due diligence and met with interested parties," he said, noting its stores are designated safe havens for runaways. "We would like to have 100 percent support for the project, but unfortunately that is not reality."

The project is not without supporters, who note it would be a marked improvement and economic boost to that corner compared with the delapidated buildings there now.

But SAND's and SouthStar's other main objection to the project is that they say it sidesteps Atlanta regulations requiring gas stations to have 100-foot buffers between them and any abutting single-family, or R4 zoned, homes.

The proposed QuikTrip site — the northwest quadrant of Moreland and Ormewood avenues — is next to single-family homes on Ormewood Avenue.

Property owner Gobind L. Madan, an accountant and Jonesboro resident, replatted his land to separate them into two separate commercial, or C1, tracts: A 1.161-acre parcel for QuikTrip and a second, 0.111-acre tract. The 100-foot buffer rule won't because the proposed QuikTrip touches the second commercial parcel, not the residential properties directly.

SAND sought EACA's support in opposing this, too. Norman said it's not just a Southeast Atlanta issue and left unchallenged, it's a potential Pandora's Box that could lead to similar projects citywide.

"This shouldn't be going on," Norman said. "If you've got a C1 plat, it's the wild, wild west basically, because they can do all this stuff and no one knows until a building permit goes out."