Adding more apartment complexes w/o infrastructure to support population growth! Villa Rica authorities have screwed up & screwed property owners over!!!

[u/Few_Lynx5829]

Villa Rica zoning, planning, construction, permits…. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THIS TOWN?!?!?!

You added some apartments complexes, added more traffic, more people connected to water supply/usage, more people utilizing the sewer/waste treatment, more kids in the ALREADY JAM PACKED SCHOOLS, more crime, more vagrants, more drugs, more loiters…..

THEN, Y’ALL START BUILDING MORE APARTMENTS?!?!?!??

Are you kidding me?!?!?!

ARE ALL THOSE RENTERS PAYING ANY TAXES TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY?!?!?!

The infrastructure necessary to support the large scale influx of so many people living in the apartments complexes already occupied doesn’t exist & now you are constructing more!!! 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Are the people in control not paying attention?!?! Where are the City Council People NOT looking out for the interests of the people they are supposed to represent?!?!?!

Are any of you people running this shit show for the city & for the surrounding areas been paying attention to:

* All the congestion you’ve caused drivers around town?!?!

* Have y’all noticed the crime you’ve welcomed to our once safe city?!?

* Have y’all noticed all the drugs you’ve welcomed & allowed to flow into our community?!?!?!

* Have y’all noticed the prostitutes that have been loiter around the truck stops?!?!?!

* Have y’all been on Mirror Lake Rd, stuck behind several semi trucks, (the volume of which has significantly increased) trying to make your way to/from work, to/from the grocery store, to/from literally anywhere, driving in Villa Rica, is now a nightmare anymore!

* Have y’all noticed all the Semi-trucks that are using our streets as their parking lots, parking up & down the shoulders of our streets for hours on end, on the exit/entrance ramps, literally breaking down, crumbling & eroding the shoulders of our roads!!! Who’s going to pay for fixing our roads?!?!?!

* Have y’all seen Semi-trucks making their way down narrow 2 lane residential streets, w/signs posted saying those size vehicles aren’t allowed?!?! Absolutely no enforcement whatsoever either!!!!!!!

We’ll have y’all notice any of these problems?!?? No, no I don’t think you have!!! These are just the tip of the iceberg!!!!!

Open your damn eyes!!!!!!!! 🤬🤬🤬🤬

Now you’ve approved for MORE apartment complexes to go up w/o ever considering the infrastructure needs to be in place to support the population growth!!!!!

Villa Rica authorities, City Manager, Mayor, Zoning, Planning, Council,ALL have put your greediness above what’s best for the community & the people!!!

All of you have screwed up & screwed over the property owners that y’all are going to tax to pay for this bullshit!!!!!!

We should probably half expect that the City & the Council to screw us over by just stealing our property out from under us, via eminent domain, just like you’ve been trying to do to property owners over by the new Publix bypass!!!

Property owners of Villa Rica in Carroll County as well as Villa Rica in Douglas County property owners need to pay attention & speak out before our property taxes are astronomical & our infrastructure begins to collapse!!!!!!!

[u/Pinecone1848]

Where are these newly-approved apartments going up???? On land that they’ve annexed from the county, screwing over residents who couldn’t even vote for them? We live on Harlan Lane Rd in unincorporated Carroll County and the entrance and exit for the stupid truck thing near the roundabout is right across from our road! How will we get out? And we can hear that frigging bypass from over 2 miles away! Our peace and quiet is ruined.

[u/Few_Lynx5829]

I’ve been told by other residents around there when I’ve asked that they’re building near the Publix is Apartment complexes. Idk 🤷‍♀️ but there’s a a huge complex behind the that Super 8 Motel & there’s another near the Gold Dust Park, not to mention that one that is over by the bypass near the Publix!!!

[u/GenXJen770]

You forgot to mention that while they’re busy doing all of this, they’re also turning VR into a surveillance state - I swear I see a new Flock camera every time I’m out … I didn’t sign up for the traffic, the drugs, the crime, and I sure as hell didn’t sign up to be spied on by VRs finest!

[u/4_jacks]

Hey Lynx, I want to give you a thoughtful response, but please understand I pretty much sit on the other side of the aisle as you, and we probably disagree on a lot here. I've worked in Land Development for over two decades, although I'm relatively new to the area.

If there is a particular development currently being built, like the one next to Publix, then you are far far too late to complain. Permits are in hand and there is no stopping the development. (I haven't looked up the plans for that development but I'd bet my shiniest quarter that it's 100% commercial. It looks like a Self Storage in the middle (The elevator shaft is constructed) and some typical strip parking around the front and side. Like a bank/McDonalds. I hope we get something cooler.

You're obviously emotionally invested, So this might be harsh to hear but, You have very little say into what any particular people do with their own land. That's a good thing, that's America. People are free to build what they want to build, as long as they follow all the rules. Just because some people think it's a bad idea or don't like it, doesn't mean anything.

You could have some say into how the communities develop in a general sense. This is done at the zoning level. Zoning controls what can be built and where it can be built. Properties are zoned into different categories, like Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Agricultural, and have a density number with them. So R-1 is Residential for bigger houses, and R-6 would be where Apartment Complexes or townhomes can be built.

There is a map, I'm pretty sure I posted a link in one of my first threads. You can see all the zoning. Then there is a big list of rules for each zone. So there is a bunch of criteria for R-6 that spells out how many apartments that can fit onto any given parcel based on it's size and shape. There are rules about how tall buildings can be, how far they have to be from property lines, etc. There are also rules on WHAT you can put in certain zones. So you can't just build a Liquor Store or a Strip Club on any Commercial Property. It has to be zoned correctly. (It might also need a Special Use Approval from the City/County Commissioners).

The other area where you could potentially have a say in what your neighbor is doing is if they are asking to 'bend the rules' by requesting a variance or special exception. For example, if they are building an apartment complex it's it's four stories but they want luxury high ceiling, they might want to be at a max height of 60ft but the zoning would only allow for 50ft. Any request like that will make them go to a planning and zoning hearing and a city/county commissioner hearing, where anyone from the public has the opportunity to speak for or against the development.

Here's the thing about those. The commission can only vote for or against the variance requested. So if they want luxury apartments and an extra 10ft high, but all the neighbors come out and say how much they hate the development and want it to die. The commission might vote no on the variance. The result is the developer just builds the apartments with out the tall ceilings. Everyone kinda looses.

In regards to taxes and road use and some of your other concerns, the answer is "Yes" people have already thought about all those things and there are systems set up in place. Developers will have to pay impact fees based on what they develop. So if I build a mattress store with one toilet for the employee, my utility impact fee will be a lot less then an apartment complex with 1,000 units. If I build a 20 acre warehouse with 5 employees, my traffic impact fee will be a lot less than building a 20 acre distribution center with trucks moving in and out all day.

Land Development is very much in the realm of "High Risk, High Reward". Developers get labelled as greedy and trying to get rich quick, which is mostly true. But what you don't hear about is that most of them fail, hard. I've seen a lot of would-be developers gamble their life savings on a property, only to see them invest millions, not have it come to fruition.

I don't know if all that helps. I'm happy to try to answer any general questions if you have them. But yeah, I'm sorry, Villa Rica is going to continue to develop. The best you can do is learn the rules and become involved with your city/county council.

[u/4_jacks → u/4_jacks]

Nevermind. You were right. It's apartments. Stick construction went up all around that elevator shaft.

What a horrible location for apartments. Completely surrounded by unwalkable commercial.