Hall Commission sides with Lake Ranch home owners

GAINESVILLE - Residential safety concerns outweighed Hall County's comprehensive land use Thursday night with a county commission vote favoring Lake Ranch Drive home owners.

Commissioner Billy Powell said it was safer to deny a Dollar Store location in front of the subdivision west of Gainesville.

"There were just so many citizens concerned primarily about the safety and access to their neighborhood and I didn't want to jeopardize that," Powell said.

Resident Linda Brady said property owners united behind the effort to stop the commercial development.

"They put the safety of the citizens even above their so-called comprehensive plan," Brady said.

Brady told commissioners that putting the store at Lake Ranch Drive and Dawsonville Highway was a 'bad plan' despite arguments and rebuttal from Brian Rochester of Rochester Associates, who represented landowner Paul Heard. Rochester said the store and its location fit the zoning, was correct land use and the county needed commercial development to help emerge from the recession.

Powell said he hoped Dollar Store would choose another site and locate in Hall County, but not at the Dawsonville Highway site at Lake Ranch Drive.

Commissioner Craig Lutz cast the lone yes vote in favor of the land owner, saying he had a right to develop his property.