Yesterday, the AJC published an op-ed by Sembler President, Jeff Fuqua. In this piece, Mr. Fuqua stated that the primary reason for the downsizing of their project was the economy rather than neighborhood objections to size of the project or loss of schools or any of the other myriad objections raised by neighbors. No big surprise there. The Sembler Corporation is not in business to listen to neighborhood concerns; their job is to maximize their profits.

Many of us involved in zoning in this area can quote chapter and verse the all-too-common developer tactic of initially proposing a project that is 500 or 600 percent larger than what is realistic for a given site. Neighborhood volunteers spend untold hours of their time fighting an abysmal plan that never should have been proposed in the first place. The thinking is that as the developer lops pieces off, they can state to the politicians how they are "listening to the community" and "showing good faith". In the end, the developer wins by wearing down the volunteers. Sembler's plan for this project is no different.

Sembler's proposed location on Briarcliff is currently home to around 2,000 apartments that are not a major traffic generator for the hugely dysfunctional intersection at Briarcliff and North Druid Hills Road. Yet, in yesterday's article, Mr. Fuqua claimed that building 2,000 replacement residential units, adding 900,000 square feet of new retail, adding a new hotel and adding 150,000 square feet of new office space, all on a two-lane road 150 yards from one of metro Atlanta's worst intersections, will somehow "help address traffic problems in the area" and "enhance the quality of life for surrounding neighborhoods" ?!?. The Sembler Corporation is still trying to stuff 20 pounds of development into a 5 pound paper sack.

One could suppose that Mr. Fuqua is assuming that the recently approved TAD will pay for some or all of the improvements needed at the intersection, but even so, those improvements would be several years down the road while his project will be up and running in the next 2 or 3 years. Or is the Sembler Corporation offering to foot the bill for improving the intersection to the level of service that would be required to make their plan workable?

So what to do? Please send emails to letters@ajc.com and tell them that this project is still ridiculously out of scale for its surroundings and that Sembler should be sent packing. Then email our full Board of Commissioners (email addresses at www.standupdekalb.org )and tell them the same.

Furthermore, if you hear that your neighborhood assoc./condo assoc./local PTA/place of worship has been approached by someone from Sembler with checkbook in hand, LET US KNOW. There was a solid coalition in Brookhaven until the Sembler Corporation made some donations (two to a local school that we know of) and then it dwindled down to a couple of neighborhoods. Our neighborhoods are currently facing many big issues and if we allow ourselves to be divided by money now we will never be able to show a united front.