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Politics & Government

Peachtree Parkway Walmart Supercenter Can Be Built

Smart Growth Forsyth and the Laurel Springs Homeowners' Association reach an agreement with Walmart over parking, ending an appeal of a Forsyth County building permit.

Walmart has been trying to build a SuperCenter store on property at Peachtree Parkway and Mathis Airport Parkway for 10 years, but a final agreement over how many parking spaces were needed cleared the final hurdle for the store to be built.

A joint announcement on the agreement between the retail company, Smart Growth Forsyth County and the Laurel Springs Homeowners' Association said that the agreeent had been reached for Walmart to move forward with construction of the store at 2395 Peachtree Parkway, Cumming.

"As has been previously reported in the media, Walmart has been working since 2003 to bring a new Supercenter to the Peachtree Parkway area of Forsyth County," the agreement said.

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Walmart obtained a building permit in December 2012. But Smart Growth Forsyth County appealed the building permit issuance, saying Forsyth County improperly issued the permit as it didn't satisfy the parking lot distribution requirements under the Peachtree Parkway Overlay District. The homeowners' association joined in the appeal.

"Walmart, in its submitted plan, met or exceeded all of the Overlay development standards with the exception of the parking distribution requirement, which Walmart maintained that it could not achieve without sacrificing safety, aesthetics and important buffers among other considerations," the announcement said.

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A suggestion that Walmart turn the store to face Mathis Airport Parkway rather than Peachtree Parkway would have satisfied the parking distrubution to the satisfaction of Smart Growth Forsyth and the Laurel Springs Homeowners' Association, but having both the side of the store and rear face in those new directions would have been less attractive and leave an unscreened view of the loading areas from Peachtree Parkway.

The two groups agreed that letting Walmart build the store under the building permit wouldn't be setting a precedent. And Walmart agreed to remove 41 parking spaces from its plan, replacing them with green space.

Walmart also agreed to withdraw its pending land disturbance permit application for an alternative site.

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