A new development with a grocery store and a restaurant may soon replace the boarded-up nursing home on Dawsonville Highway in Gainesville.

The city’s Planning and Appeals Board on Tuesday recommended the City Council approve an annexation and a rezoning that would allow Bill Dupree to develop 10.68 acres for restaurants, professional offices and a neighborhood supermarket on and around the site of the former Lakeshore Heights nursing home.

Attorney Jim Walters, who spoke on Dupree’s behalf, promised the development would bring jobs and increased revenues from property and sales taxes.

He told the board that the developer planned to build four buildings on the site. Dupree already has interest from two national chain restaurants and a letter of intent from a “chain of grocery stores that primarily exists in the Southeast,” Walters said.

The planned grocery store is proposed to be 15,000 square feet — what Walters called a small, neighborhood-type grocery store.
“This is good medicine for the city of Gainesville,” Walters said. “This is what we need.”

But at least two residents of the neighborhood behind the proposed development opposed the developer’s request to access the development from Beechwood Boulevard.

At Walters’ request, the majority of the board voted to remove a condition on the zoning application that would prohibit access to the development from Beechwood Boulevard. Walters said the main potential buyer needed the access. He noted that Ingles in Gainesville has access to Nancy Creek Road and the Kroger on Ga. 60 has access to Mount Vernon Road.

“Access to Beechwood Boulevard will not put any traffic in front of any residences in this nice subdivision,” Walters said. “... These business owners need all the access they can have in order to be successful.”

But before the board voted, resident Linda Stokes presented a petition with signatures from neighborhood residents opposing the access to the street they use to access Dawsonville Highway.

She said residents were in favor of the annexation on Dawsonville Highway, but did not want the development to encroach on their neighborhood. Another Beechwood Boulevard resident, Sandra Bell, echoed Stokes’ sentiments, and said she was worried that the access to Beechwood Boulevard from the development would block traffic for residents who were trying to leave their homes.

“There’s a lot of traffic in our neighborhood, but we don’t need to jeopardize the lives that live in that neighborhood,” Stokes said. “... They can do all they want. They’ve got the equivalent of two-and-a-half football fields length. If they can’t get three driveways out of that, I don’t know who can.”

But five members of the board voted to remove the condition in the zoning requirement; Vice Chairman Joe Diaz and board member Connie Rucker voted against the motion. The final decision will be made by the Gainesville City Council in March.

In other business, the board unanimously voted to recommend that the City Council deny a request by the owner of Agora House for Men to rezone a property on Park Street to allow for a group home. The vote came after seven neighborhood residents said they opposed the home in their neighborhood, and some even cited concerns that the men living in the homes were harassing students at Brenau University.

Hinchman already is illegally using the two-story home at 1050 Park St. as a group home for men recovering from alcohol and drug addictions. The property is zoned as a single-family residence. Its accompanying Residential-I zoning does not allow for group homes.

The City Marshal’s office cited the Agora House for Men on Oct. 23 for running a group home in the Park Street home without a valid occupancy permit. But Hinchman has asked that the city rezone the property to a more group-home friendly Residential-II zoning with a special-use permit that would make the group home legal.

“In my opinion, this gentleman is disrespecting the law of Gainesville, Ga.; he’s disrespecting this board; he’s disrespecting the police department, the City Marshal’s office — he’s disrespecting our neighborhood,” said Bill Morrison, who operates an optometry office near the residence. “If somebody’s going to do that — he’s going to disrespect the law — what kind of example is he going to be for these men who are trying to rehabilitate themselves?”

Hinchman is already involved in a lawsuit with the city over a 2007 decision that denied him the same needed permits to operate a group home in a Residential-II zoning district.

In September 2007, the Gainesville City Council denied Hinchman’s request for special-use permits in three homes on Ivey Terrace and Northside Drive.

And again in December 2007, the City Council denied a request to move Agora House for Men into two buildings in Midtown.
Hinchman and the owner of another group home in the city filed suit against the city in March 2008, claiming the city violated the Federal Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act by requiring the group homes to move.

Both the city and the plaintiffs have filed for summary judgment in the case, but the outcome has yet to be decided in the U.S. District Court in Gainesville.

Hinchman did not speak at Tuesday’s meeting. Instead, Jon Hollifield, the center’s treatment director, spoke on behalf of the request, and submitted a letter from the Washington attorney who represents the recovery center in its lawsuit against the city.

On Tuesday, Diaz made the motion to deny Hinchman’s most recent request, and said he felt sorry for the residents of Agora House because they could not rely on the people who were running the home. Diaz expressed frustration that Hinchman opened up another home without permission and would “dare us to stop them.” The board voted unanimously to deny the request. The City Council will make the final decision in March.

“The message that I would send is, do it right or don’t do it at all,” Diaz said.