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COMMENTARY
Respect the land around us
To the editor:
“We abuse land because we regard it
as a commodity belonging to us. When we
see land as a community to which we be
long, we may begin to use it with love and
respect. ”
Aldo Leopold
Back in the 1920s and 1930s, es
teemed conservationist and environ
mentalist Aldo Leopold was advocat
ing for a common-sense management
of wildlife communities and the subse
quent relationship of man to the natu
ral world; his beliefs are as relevant to
day as they were before.
In the present, mass land develop
ment creeps beyond the cities’ limits
and results in fragmented areas. When
development occurs without measured
consideration of infrastructure capaci
ties, transportation options and quali
ty of life considerations,
damage is caused, result
ing in loss of character
and use of the area.
JLB Partners and Core
Property Development
has a proposal known as
The Gateway (referred to
as SSG) in the works; the
plan removes two aging
apartment complexes near
the intersections of Ro
swell Road, Wieuca Road
and Windsor Parkway. In
the proposal’s current re
vised version, the plan is
to replace 436 units with
700 on its 21.3 acre site,
to increase the building’s
height from two stories to
six stories, to create 1,484
parking spaces including
two parking decks, and to
have 90,000 square feet
of commercial/retail and
30,000 square feet of of
fices.
Inherent to this pro
posal, traffic will signifi
cantly increase in the af
fected area. According to
traffic studies, SSG will generate 8,900
to 10,700 daily vehicular trips on near
by streets. Roswell Road, Windsor
Parkway and Wieuca Roads are already
clogged. Studies indicate a 22.5 per
cent increase on Roswell Road at West
Wieuca.
To make traffic matters worse, the
plan results in the proposed realign
ment of Windsor Parkway at Roswell
into a possible five-lane intersection at
a cost of over $4.4 million, benefiting
JLB’s apartment community entrance
in order to have a traffic light. The
price tag for Windsor Parkway would
then have to be picked up by taxpay
er money.
Notwithstanding the increased traf
fic and probable property value dimin-
ishment to single-family homes in the
surrounding neighborhoods, a worse
effect is the impact to the suburban
LETTER TO
THE EDITOR
E-mail letters to
editor@reporternewspapers.net
character of the area and the likelihood
for future similar development.
City Councilwoman Karen Meinzen
McEnerny has expressed opinions on
the proposal saying that residents want
a “balanced” development that will
be a gateway from Atlanta into Sandy
Springs. She said the current proposal
doesn’t come close to achieving harmo
ny with the neighborhoods.
“It’s going to require millions of
public sector improvements offsite to
allow that kind of density,” she said.
“It’s way over the top.”
At this very important juncture, we
should be thinking about what kind of
vision we would like to see for the Ro
swell Road corridor. Land-use plan
ning should make areas more benefi
cial, more attractive, less congested and
more respectful of available land.
Leopold remains a voice for land
use. Are we to heed Leopold’s com
ments regarding living in a community
that we respect and love or are we to be
driven by developers’ needs for land as
a commodity. Sandy Springs has a sub
urban character. My preference is for a
community of homes, apartments, re
tail and commercial uses that respect
the character of the area in which we
live. . . not a hodgepodge of overly
dense developments.
Nancy Hamburger
SPECIAL
A map showing the initial concept for a
mixed-use development near Chastain Park.
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www.ReporterNewspapers.net | MAY 17—MAY30,2013 | 7