It’s rare for Gwinnett County’s leaders to approve land rezonings that are opposed by both the county’s planning commission and planning department.
Since 2003, it has happened in only 4 percent of all rezoning cases, records show.
But when the County Commission does go against the recommendations of its planning experts, Gwinnett Commissioner Kevin Kenerly is usually involved.
Kenerly has pushed for the approval of more opposed rezonings since 2003 than all nine other commissioners who served on the board during the same time, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The AJC found that 58 percent of the rezonings following that pattern were championed by Kenerly. Many of those came with warnings from county planners that the projects could have a negative effect on communities. The true impact might not be known for years to come, but if the warnings ring true, the rezonings could leave a legacy of irregular and patchy development throughout Kenerly’s district.
Kenerly, who announced in August that he wasn’t seeking re-election this year, did not return phone messages left on his cell, home and county office phones.
But he has described himself as a watchful caretaker of rezonings in his district, which covers northern and central Gwinnett.
“I address them just like it’s my neighborhood,” Kenerly said during a 2005 commission meeting. “I want to make sure it’s exactly like I’d want it if I lived right there.”
Since taking office in 1995, Kenerly has developed a reputation as a pro-development politician who has forged friendships with some of the county’s most prominent developers.
“Kevin, his only fault — if he’s got one — is that he did want to have activity,” said Buford developer Tim Robinson, who described Kenerly as a friend. “He wants to hear nails. I’ve heard him say this a thousand times, ‘If there ain’t anything going on, we’re going backwards.’ ”
Kenerly and other commissioners’ connections to developers are under investigation by a Gwinnett grand jury formed last year to scrutinize land purchases from politically connected developers.
‘Ain’t done me no favors’
Rezonings are critical for developers. When turning a piece of land into, for example, an apartment complex, developers often need to get the land rezoned to the appropriate classification. Without it, they couldn’t build their desired projects.
Robinson and his business partner son, Ty Robinson, were involved in more opposed rezonings than any other developers. The Robinsons were directly involved in four; no other developer had ties to more than two.
Robinson, a former planning commissioner and the brother-in-law of former Commissioner Tommy Hughes, said he did not get special treatment from Kenerly, whom he has golfed with frequently over the years.
“He ain’t done me no favors,” said Robinson, adding that Kenerly “will help anybody. He won’t discriminate. There’s no doubt, Kevin will tell you, he loves to hear hammers.”
Planning experts say there is a price to pay if governments are not careful with their community’s development patterns. Ill-advised rezonings can overwhelm sewer and water systems, cause traffic problems, school overcrowding and lower property values, experts say.
“If you don’t have enough infrastructure, if you don’t have sufficient parking, sufficient street networks, you can cause a sort of irrational pattern in your community,” said Maureen McAvey, an official with the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit organization that specializes in land use issues.
Plus, “spot” zonings are often unattractive and “can really disrupt and interrupt [a community’s] sense of cultural identity,” said Mike Dobbins, a Georgia Tech professor of urban design and development. “It changes its character.”
Dobbins said it’s critical for governments to follow their land-use plans — which map out how communities want to grow and develop — as long as they’re up to date. Gwinnett updates its plan every decade.
“It should be vital,” he said. “That’s supposed to be guiding the policy.”
Most of the rezonings highlighted by the AJC’s analysis have yet to show ill effects, county officials say.
That’s partly because the recession has slowed development. Of the rezonings reviewed by the AJC, most of the developments have either not been built or completed, according to data provided by the county.
“Our prophetic warnings haven’t come true,” said Bryan Lackey, acting director of Gwinnett’s Planning & Development Department. “It doesn’t mean it won’t happen 20 years from now.”
‘Much busier now’
But some communities have been affected.
In January 2003, Richardson Housing Group successfully got an 18-acre tract of land rezoned for a single-family subdivision east of Lilburn.
John Considine, the then-president of a nearby homeowners’ association, said at the time that he worried that the development would add to the area’s traffic woes.
“It’s going to just make that traffic safety problem much, much worse,” Considine told planning commissioners.
Considine, 61, now says he was right.
“It did put a lot more cars on the street,” Considine said. “The roads are much busier now.”
But Considine also added that, after that subdivision was built, several others followed, so one development can’t take all the blame.
“It used to be a quiet little country road,” he said. “Now it’s a busy thoroughfare.”
Wayne Rowan, 48, once lived along a stretch of Braselton Highway in the northeast corner of the county.
But when the Board of Commissioners voted to allow a retail complex next to Rowan’s land, he picked up and left.
“I didn’t want to be living next to commercial property,” he said. “I was basically living in the woods. No one even saw our house. Now, suddenly, I would have flood lights going through the woods.”
Rowan, his wife and daughter moved to an established neighborhood about 3 1/2 miles south, where such rezonings are less likely.
The land remains undeveloped, but Rowan figured it would be just a matter of time, now that it’s zoned commercial.
“After a while, you just throw your hands up [and say,] ‘We lost that one. Let’s move on,’ ” he said.
Each rezoning request that cycles through Gwinnett’s government is reviewed by the county’s planning department and its planning commission.
The planning department is composed of planners who analyze and offer professional recommendations for all rezoning requests, while the planning commission is a nine-member board of community members appointed by commissioners.
They both only offer recommendations before the rezoning request makes its way to the Board of Commissioners for a vote.
Defer to the commissioner
When defending his votes on controversial rezonings in the past, Kenerly has downplayed the recommendations that come from both levels. He previously told the newspaper that some of Gwinnett’s most prized developments have been opposed by the planning staff, but did not cite examples. He also described the planning commission’s decisions as erratic, saying the group is “all political.”
In Gwinnett, getting the support of the commissioner who represents the district that hosts the proposed rezoning is critical for developers. Some commissioners talk openly about “district courtesy,” an unwritten practice of deferring to the wishes of the commissioner who represents the district where a request is being considered.
“If it’s in another commissioner’s district, I’m going to pretty much defer to that commissioner for the most part — unless I’m vehemently opposed to it,” Commissioner Bert Nasuti told the AJC for a previous story. “Just like I want them to defer to me if it’s in my district.”
Since 2003, the Gwinnett County Commission has voted on 881 rezoning requests, according to data. The commission approved 38 in some form despite the opposition of both the planning staff and planning commission. Of those, 58 percent fell in Kenerly’s district or were pushed by him. That’s more than all the other commissioners combined. In comparison, only 37 percent of the total number of rezoning requests fell in Kenerly’s district.
In nearly each case, planners reported that the rezoning requests were out of sync with the county’s land-use plan. For numerous cases, county planners also cautioned that the rezonings could have negative effects.
Planners warned that one project “could lead to future land-use conflicts.” Another had the potential to “cause adverse impacts on nearby residential properties,” planners said.
Both projects got approved.
Over the years, when the County Commission has strayed from the land-use plan, the board has heard about it from frustrated residents.
“I don’t know why the taxpayers of Gwinnett County spend tens upon thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars for a land-use plan if we’re never going to follow it,” Lawrenceville resident Jeff Knapp told the commission while protesting a 2005 rezoning in Kenerly’s district. “All I ask — and all everybody else is asking you — is that you gentlemen live up to and enforce the land-use plan that the taxpayers of this county paid for.”
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How we got the story
The AJC analyzed land rezonings dating back to 2003 to scrutinize the land-use decisions of the Gwinnett County Commission. The analysis revealed that Commissioner Kevin Kenerly championed a high number of rezonings that got approved despite the opposition of the county’s planning commission and planning department. The newspaper reviewed the files for the rezonings, obtained transcripts of planning commission meetings, viewed videotapes of County Commission meetings and conducted numerous interviews.
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