The Banks County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to deny a request for a conditional use permit to locate a flea market in the former location of Craven’s Pottery. Last week, the Banks County Planning Commission recommended that the request from Barrow 141 on 316, LLC to locate a flea market at 100 Pottery Drive be denied.
Nina Yakubov, a representative of Barrow 141 on 316, LLC said a furniture store is set to open in February in a portion of the 90,000 square foot building and the flea market would be in the same area.
Yakubov told commissioners that changes had been made to the plans since last week’s planning commission meeting. Plans included cleaning up the back of the property, adding a park with a pond and benches for customers to use when shopping at the flea market in that area.
Yakubov said her company has had to hire security due to vandalism at the property and the vandalism is still occurring.
At the planning commission meeting several nearby business owners spoke in opposition to the conditional use request.
Joe Cook said, “I think a flea market is a step backwards.”
Another business owner agreed.
“A flea market is about as low as you can go … just above a yard sale,” Don Bynam said.
Alicia Andrews, property manager at Commerce Factory Outlets, said, “We will endanger the business community at Banks Crossing if we allow this flea market to come in.”
Andrews told the commissioners on Tuesday that three tenants of Commerce Factory Outlets have already said they will move out if the flea market moves in the Pottery building. Andrews added four tenants have already moved out in recent months.
Commerce Factory Outlets business owner Kelly Davis Peters told the commissioners she is opposed to the flea market locating in this building.
Yakubov said her company would not take a risk that would affect other businesses in the area.
“Our company’s goal is to bring money into Banks County,” Yakubov said.
Yakubov said the tenants of the flea market would be required to sign a one-year lease agreement for the flea market space.
Yakubov said that large retail stores have declined to locate on the site due to the downturn in the economy. Yakubov added that her company would not stand in the way of a large retail store locating on this site. She said a clause would be included in the one-year lease agreement that would allow the lease to terminate if a large retail store should locate at this site.
Commissioner Joe Barefoot made the motion to deny the request, which was seconded by Charles Turk. The motion carried unanimously.
Their decisions are made based upon tax revenues rather than the actual property owners interest. If the owner of a property wishes to use his property in ANY WAY he wishes, he should be allowed to do so . If they wanted to put a flea market , restaurant, chicken house or smelly old hog farm there, no one should have been in a position to open their mouths - unless they want their jaw broken. If you are brave enough to pay all your life, just to acquire maintain & keep a piece of property , while thinking you now own something , only to find yearly your criminally extorted through land taxation and then regulated by some group of busy bodies telling you what you must do with our own hard earned land , smacks of unjust condemnation of the property owners assets without compensation .
Has anyone got any idea what the bloody Tax burden is on that piece of property for the owner ?
Call it a mall & rent the thing by the hour, they allow the local motels to do the same thing & there's business taking place there nightly in a lot of those rooms & with no chance of a sales tax collection either.
How many of you can remember how many companies Wal-Mart put out of business, with their little store over in Commerce all those years back; let alone with the superstore on the hill ? The Flea Market would have balanced in a failing economy so small business owners might have again had a chance to operate somewhere they can afford. Any of you noticed what the leases are in the tri county area these days - the word unaffordable comes to mind.
When ANY Government Legislates the land owner and small business owner out of business in favor of community standards, tax dollar issues & for the better of what can only be, bigger business interests, we all get nailed . All we need is more Wal-Marts , factory outlets and fast food restaurants to mess up this once peaceful & profitable neighborhood. Communities are built by local business owners spending their income with local vendors not with multi-national companies that export the money out of the community & in our case out of the country to the big business owners bank accounts.
I vote we close all the government offices completely; fire all the employees including the elected ones , all through out the 159 Georgia counties and do without them all, including the Police & Garbage men , Fire Departments & all legislative bodies and do as we have done for at least a few million years before this madness - Handle It Ourselves.
LOOKS LIKE YOUR COUNTY STILL STRUGGLES,,,to bad you had crooked people in office years ago,,,,paybak is a a b--ch..
Mexicans who have gang wannabes that follow any large group of nomadic Hispanics like puppies everywhere they go and flock like moth's to the flame anywhere a flea market is set up. During the last year the Banks Crossing Flea Market was open tons of Hispanics were in there. Several times they would accidentally break something and then act like they couldn't speak English so they did't have to pay for the item. Thats trouble the town can certainly do without. The last thing we need is another Boy's Town, Mexico. Bravo B.O.C.
The Tanger stores are already starting to look "international" a flea market would soon look like an inter city Mexico!! With all that goes with it.
Have any of you been to Pendergrass in the last few years? NOT A PLACE A NICE WOMAN WOULD GO WITHOUT A SHOT GUN AND A BODYGUARD!
I TOTALLY agree with the BOC. THANK THE LORD They have more since than most of you seem to have.