Quik Trip Rezoning Request to develop at the intersection of Chamblee-Tucker and Dresden Drive.
Date: Tuesday March 6, 2012
Time: 6:30pm
Place: DeKalb County Maloof Center Auditorium
1300 Commerce Dr.
Decatur, GA 30030
Happy New Year!
I want to make everyone aware of a couple of important meetings happening this week:
-Wednesday, January 18, 7pm at the Comfort Inn located at 2001 Clearview Ave, Atlanta, GA, 30340. This meeting is from representatives of the Quik Trip Corporation about a proposed development “along Dresden Drive, south of Chamblee Tucker Road for a new convenience store and gas pumps.” I personally find this description a bit vague since the only property available is a strip of land across from Dresden Heights, and this doesn’t seem large enough for a business like Quik Trip, plus, the current location on Chamblee-Tucker seems more visible and quite successful.
-Thursday, January 19th, 7pm, Dresden Elementary, for the quarterly DECA meeting. This event will focus on the proposed City of Brookhaven, how it affects us and the nearby neighborhoods, and the possibility of our area being annexed into the City of Chamblee. Representative Elena Parent will be on hand to give us the most updated information and take your questions on this developing situation.
Many of you have recently voiced concerns about the work GA Power is doing in our neighborhood. The HOA met with Kym Stephens, Transmission Forester for GA Power, and Kerry McNamara, Tree Removal coordinator whose company has been subcontracting the work for many years.
Basically GA Power is not allowing any tree or shrub, whose mature height is over 15 feet, to grow within the transmission path (they are much more lenient with the lower voltage distribution lines in front of our homes). We were told they are responding to new national guidelines requiring aggressive management of the rights-of-way paths. They say the blackout of 2003 and the following investigation revealed that overgrown trees contributed to this major power outage. Our research shows that tree interference was further down the list of critical failures that caused this blackout to cascade to several states and parts of Canada. You can draw your own conclusions by reading the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003.
GA Power does offer some compensation in the form of a program for replacing your landscaping with plants from an approved list. This is a program they do not readily offer as it costs them time and money, but we personally think it’s the least they can do for suddenly destroying your landscape. The amount of compensation will be done on a case-by-case basis, and you must call either Kym Stephens (770-387-5348) or Kerry McNamara(404-473-8425) to set up an appointment.
The HOA also reached out to Commissioner Boyer’s office, Trees Atlanta, and a private attorney to get some advice. The commissioner’s office plans on sending a letter to GA Power stating a concern for their constituency, Trees Atlanta gave us the name of the head of line clearing, Matt Chambers (770-841-3786) and the investigation our easement agreement with GA Power back in March of 1962 reveals that GA Power has “the right at all times to enter upon said premises for the purpose of inspection said lines, making repairs, renewals, alterations and extensions thereon…together with the right to cut away and keep clear of said lines, all trees and other obstructions that may now or hereafter in any way interfere or be likely to interfere with the proper operation of said lines…”
Ultimately, the HOA believes the only recourse is to accept the replanting if it is offered. A long expensive legal battle with a big company seems futile. However, I encourage you to voice any complaints you can with GA Power so that, in the future, they do a much better job of informing and working with the community.
I’m sure you’ve heard the recent debate about the creation for a city of Brookhaven. Many folks in our immediate area think this will be bad for those of us left in unicorporated DeKalb. The Dresden East Civic Association (DECA) has posted several comments and links to articles about this on their Yahoo website, and I encourage you to take a look…http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DECA_Atlanta/
We will have the spring meeting of the Surrey Place Homeowner’s Association Thursday, April 28th, 7pm, at 3062 Trafalgar Way. As usual, we will present the latest news about our neighborhood and surrounding community, along with a Q&A session at the end for any concerns you may have…Hope to see you there!
The Surrey Place Fall Cookout will be Sunday, Oct 31st, from 2p-6p at 3062 Trafalgar Way. This is a great opportunity to get caught up with your neighbors and to share some good food! The association will provide hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken for the grill, along with soft drinks and perhaps and adult beverage or two. We’d like you to bring a side dish…perhaps an appetizer, salad, pasta, casserole or some type of dessert. Hope to see you there!
Have you seen our new neighborhood sign yet? It looks great! It took many months of design and planning to execute this project but I hope you all agree it was worth the wait.
Thanks to EVERYONE who contributed extra money this year and a special thanks to our own Mark Bedell who came up with the final design.
I hope this new sign will give a sense of pride to Surrey Place for years to come!
The Surrey Place Fall meeting will be Thursday, Oct. 14th, 7pm, at 3062 Trafalgar Way. We have several updates on news concerning our neighborhood and surrounding community. Hope to see you there!
Welcome to the new Surrey Place website! This renovation project took a while, but we hope you’ll appreciate the new look and all of the updated information and links. We intend to grow this website into a useful tool that you will visit often when you have questions about our neighborhood or surrounding community. We also encourage your feedback on what we can do to improve the content and the navigation. Happy surfing!
Read the latest updates on Surrey Place in the Summer 2010 Newsletter!
