Katherine James and her husband have owned property off of Town Creek Church Road for 30 years. It’s where they always planned to retire.
However those plans could change as James and her family could be next-door neighbors to a potential development that’s causing a controversy in the Frogtown area.
“My husband freaked out and said we should just move,” James said. “I said ‘We bought our property 30 years ago. We should not move. We need to do something.’”
So what she did was round up her neighbors and head to the courthouse for the Planning Commission Meeting to speak up against the development.
But what exactly is the development she’s speaking against?
At this point, no one can say for sure.
“It seems like somebody’s making it the talk of the town when nobody really knows what they’re doing because nobody’s submitted a plan,” said County Commissioner Chairman Chris Dockery. “So we have an idea of what they want to do but nobody’s submitted a plan.”
James first found out about the development by finding surveyors on her property. Then she saw the plans for the 110 acre lot, that would make her neighbor to 60 RV Pads, an amphitheater and 20 tent sites, among other amenities.
“There’s a beer hall, an event center, a sewage processing and cleanout station and a cellphone tower,” she said. “It’s the largest development of this kind since Iron Mountain.”
With worries that the plan, at the time known as the Dreamscapes Development, intended to be a high-end community would turn to a trailer park, James took action, speaking before the Planning Commission with a room full of her Frogtown neighbors and residents in opposition of the development, despite the plan not being on the agenda or even being finalized.
“When we got up and spoke at the planning commissioners meeting...I said right now, in Frogtown, the wine region which this has developed into, with the stroke of a pen, you’re going to change the entire character of the area,” she told The Nugget.
However, Tom Petrillo, the developer behind the project says he hasn’t gotten a fair shake with his plans.
“I don’t blame anybody for anything,” Petrillo told The Nugget. “All I ask of the community is that it’s only fair that you understand what we’re trying to accomplish so that way you’re making your voice known because you have something in front of you that’s tangible. I don’t blame them for it. Anybody can be concerned about a big developer coming in and wiping out the land.”
Petrillo, a distributor of hair care products in Florida, said he’s been in love with Dahlonega since he first visited some family here five years ago. He says the last thing he wants to do is tear down the community.
“The way I view Dahlonega is it’s probably one of the most beautiful settings in north Georgia, and I mean that sincerely,” he said. “...I think what’s important is that we offer a balance to what gets developed in Dahlonega and that we don’t come in and interrupt what’s happening. We add an amenity to it that actually helps the overall county.”
Since James’ speech to the Planning Commission, Petrillo says the entire plan is “completely different,” including the name of the potential development, which is now DiVine Village.
“What we’re looking to do is we’re looking to put together basically three or four major elements,” he said. “We’re looking to put together a motor coach resort, which is a high-end motor coach resort. When you think about a motor coach, motor coaches run anywhere between $300,000 and $1 million and as you see it, you’ll see how it unfolds. This is a high-end property and the village is a high-end village.”
NEW DIRECTION
In addition to the motor coach resort, designed for short stays of between two and seven days, Petrillo’s plan includes high-end cabins for rent short-term as well as subdivision lots he assumes will be a secondary residency for most.
After a talk with James, Petrillo nixed the amphitheater, “beer hall,” which he says was meant to be a classier in-house bar, and tent sites that were designed for glamping.
“I don’t see that as good for the community, so we took that out,” he said of the high-end tent sites. “We also had some concerns that we heard about the amphitheater and I thought that would be a nice amenity for the county, but when you think about where are they going to park and how are they going to park, it could impede on what the local groups really want, so we took that out.”
Petrillo feels that he’s shown his willingness to adapt the plan to best fit the community he looks to serve. Now he hopes to be taken under consideration with an open mind.
“In fairness to the community, no one knew what I was really looking to do,” he said. “They saw a piece of paper that was similar to this [plan] and that’s all they knew.”
PUBLIC PROCESS
However, Dockery said that until he sees more pieces of paper in the form of a Special Land Use Application, he and the board will not be considering anything.
“There hasn’t been a plan submitted that has been accepted,” he said. “I talked to the owner a few months ago, the property has not even sold. So there’s nothing there for the Board of Commissioners to consider as of now.”
Petrillo says he has the property under contract. His price is believed to be at $2.3 million for the 110 acre plat.
Dockery, who also lives off Town Creek Church Road, says once the application is submitted, the board will move forward in the same manner as always.
“Just like with any other project of that scope, it would be a public process,” he said. “The public would be invited to give their input and the Board of Commissioners would weigh all the factors that are involved, if and when a plan is submitted, we would make what we think is the best decision for the community.”
As for when something could happen with the development, Dockery said the ball is in Petrillo’s court.
“The timeline is determined by him because if and when he submits something to be considered, it will be advertised just like any other public hearing and then it would be determined based on when he submits it,” Dockery said. “So nothing would be different than what we do for any other development of that size. It’s a public process with public input. Nothing is done in secret. It’s all transparent and we want to hear from the public.”
As of press time, a completed application had not been submitted for the DiVine Village development, according to Planning Director Bruce Georgia, thus no SLUA Public Hearing date had been set. Check our website at thedahloneganugget.com for updates.