Residents Against Rezoning for Hotel Between Hickory Grove Road and Hickory Grove Place
Residents Against Rezoning for Hotel Between Hickory Grove Road and Hickory Grove Place
WS Hotels LLC is looking to rezone and develop a green space lot in between Hickory Grove Road and Hickory Grove Place. We’re asking for residents and business owners in the area who are against this rezoning to please sign this petition that will be brought to the rezoning meetings. We will continue to update the neighborhood as we get more information!
WoodSpring Hotels is planning on building an extended stay hotel on this property. A quick map search pulls up 5+ extended stays in a five mile radius, and those are just the ones that have the words extended stay in the name and does not include other low budget hotels/motels. What this area absolutely does not need is another extended stay.
Aside from traffic concerns, which have been brought up since the addition of the express lane exit on Hickory Grove, residents are rightly concerned about property values and most importantly crime.
Right on the corner is a bus stop for middle school and high school children, around the corner is a KinderCare daycare facility, and less than a mile away is Pitner Elementary School.
Unfortunately extended stays are notorious breeding grounds for criminal activity, activity that certainly does not belong in this residential area. Sex trafficking, illicit drug use, and prostitution do not belong anywhere, but especially next to private homes, daycares and schools.
Just a few short years ago, the city of Marietta was fighting it’s own battle against extended stays after reporting a significant increase in service calls. “Every year, the Marietta Police Department reports crime statistics to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, a national crime database. Marietta police reported a total of 2,155 service calls in 2014, a 1,000 call increase from 2013, from areas with extended-stay hotels. The reported incidents include calls made to police that resulted in arrests, as well as officer-initiated activity” (MDJonline). City Council members also noted that “Extended-stay hotels continue to serve as apartment complexes rather than their ordained purpose. The illegal use of the motels can endanger children in the area due to its lack of patron screening...” (MDJonline).
This petition is to show not only the developers that we will not stand by and watch our neighborhood be destroyed, but to show our elected officials exactly where we stand as well. It is important to not only sign the petition and share it, but to also show up to the public meetings, as well as call, write and e-mail our commissioner for District 3, JoAnn Birrell and let her know how you feel about this matter. Her contact information is as follows:
(770) 528-3317
(770) 528-2606 (Fax)
joann.birrell@cobbcounty.org