Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center owner ordered to clean up portion of decaying property

Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center

Cobb County government has sent word late this afternoon that a remediation order has been issued for the owners of the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center that’s long been the subject of community efforts to get cleaned up.

That means that NAI Brannen Goddard, an Atlanta-based real estate agency that owns the 16-acre site at 2692 Sandy Plains Road, has to make some immediate improvements to the property (detailed below), which includes some existing businesses.

Mostly, it’s empty commercial space, including a former bowlling alley, as well as a cemetery, that’s been deteriorating for nearly a couple decades.

Citizens have complained of criminal and even gang activity, especially around the bowling alley area. Cobb commissioners in 2017 adopted a blight ordinance. That would impose additional taxes on property identified as blighted and deemed uninhabitable and unsafe if remediation actions to improve it weren’t conducted.

That’s where this case, the first test of that ordinance that’s reached the court stage, stands now.

Under the remediation order issued in Cobb Magistrate Court, NAI Brannen Goddard must do the following to and around the bowling alley building:

  • install and maintain adequate lighting on all sides of the building within 15 days of the order;
  • install and maintain a camera security system within 15 days;
  • post “No loitering allowed” and “You are being video recorded” signs in conspicuous and prominent locations within 15 days of the court order;
  • provide an engineer’s report detailing the proper repairs required to correct the safety & structural issues created by the canopy’s removal within 30 days of the court order;
  • complete the repairs in the engineer’s report;
  • have a representative or project manager visit the site at least once per week to inspect for illegal activity & property damage and correct issues within 48 hours;
  • remove litter within 48 hours;
  • promptly respond to development inspections or code enforcement issues;
  • install fencing around the perimeter of the building to prevent passage onto the property.

Per the Cobb government information, the building doesn’t have to be demolished (as some in the community have wanted). But “non-compliance with the order will result in additional tax remaining on the property until the remediation is complete.”

Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center
Citizens living near the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center turned out en masse to a community meeting in March to demand the property be cleaned up. 

The order is only for the bowling alley area, not for the rest of the Sprayberry Crossing property.

If additional taxes are levied, they would be seven times the county general fund millage rate value of their properties. According to a Cobb Community Development Agency estimate announced at a community meeting in March, that total would come to around $17,000. That figure prompted many citizens at the meeting to groan with dismay.

The order comes as commissioners were scheduled to designate several blighted properties for incentivized redevelopment on Tuesday, including the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center (No. 15 on the map). It’s been on previous lists.

Some nearby residents, working through the Sprayberry Crossing Action group, also have been preparing possible civil action against NAI Brannen Goddard. A series of meetings, starting Thursday, has been scheduled for citizens interested in filing a claim against the property owner.

The Cobb government statement included this response from commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who represents the area:

“I’m pleased with the court’s decision in designating this property as blighted although I would have preferred the building be demolished. However, I’m glad to know the court heard the county’s and the citizen’s concerns. The county is doing everything within its ability under the code to address the concerns related to this property and will continue to monitor conditions.”

Here’s what Joe Glancy, organizer of the Sprayberry Action group, posted after hearing the news:

“It’s not enough.

“But a word of warning to Mitchell Brannen, Sam Hale, Bo Brown and the other owners of that blighted shopping center – summer with all its wonderful distractions is coming to a close, and you will have our full attention in the coming months.”

 

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Boyce, other elected officials confirmed for Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center meeting

Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center

A citizens group that has organized a public meeting next week about the fate of Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center (previous East Cobb News post here) is sending word about the elected officials who are expected to be in attendance.

They include Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce, District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, and State Rep. Don Parsons. The Sprayberry Crossing Action Facebook group also has invited State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick.

Boyce and Parsons will be among those speaking and will take questions after their remarks.

The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. next Wednesday, March 21, in the theater of Sprayberry High School (2525 Sandy Plains Road).

The citizens group organized the meeting to prompt action on the run-down shopping center on Sandy Plains Road near Piedmont Road. While there are a few tenants, most of Sprayberry Crossing has been long-vacant and is in deteriorating condition.

Last month, the Cobb Community Development Department sent a notice to Brennan Goddard, a commercial real estate agency representing the shopping center property owner, to propose an improvement plan under the county’s new “blight tax” provision (previous East Cobb News post here).

Among the issues cited in the county’s letter, in addition to the decay of the buildings, are numerous police calls to the shopping center, and signs of possible gang activity at a former bowling alley.

Shane Spink, one of the leaders of the Sprayberry Crossing Action group, told East Cobb News that the property owners have been invited to “attend every meeting we have had on this site but they have always chosen not to attend.”

Spink said “this one is no different and they will have seats saved with their names on it but I wouldn’t bet on them coming.”

 

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Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center owners issued ‘blight tax’ letter

Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center

The Cobb Community Development Department has sent a notice to the owners of the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center demanding it address conditions at the decaying retail property that may run afoul of the county’s new “blight tax” provision.

The letter, delivered Thursday to Brannen Goddard, an Atlanta commercial real estate agency representing Sprayberry Crossing Partnership (PDF here), said the owners have 30 days to provide a “reasonable” plan to make improvements to the shopping center, located at the southeast corner of Sandy Plains Road and East Piedmont Road.

Sprayberry Crossing has long been the subject of complaints from nearby residents. Although several small businesses operate there, most of the shopping center is vacant and has been in deteriorating conditions for years.

Related coverage

The community development office conducted an inspection of the property in late January and concluded that Sprayberry Crossing met three of the conditions for designation as a blighted property: having an uninhabitable, unsafe or unsound structure; being conducive to “ill health” to those in close proximity to the property; and being the subject of repeated reports of illegal activity on the premises.

The letter included photographs from the inspection showing boarded-up windows and holes in the structures and a list of 28 reports of criminal incidents dating back to 2014.

In the letter, written by Cobb community development director Dana Johnson, the findings of the inspection include evidence of gang activity near the former bowling alley at the back of the property, no proper storm drainage provisions, vandalized mechanical equipment, utility lines laying across the parking lot and signs of repeated break-ins.

Last July the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved a code amendment called the Community Improvement Tax Incentive Program, which allows for the county to set forth several criteria for determining a blighted property. It can then conduct inspections of run-down businesses and rental properties and prompt repairs. Ultimately, the county could impose a fine of seven times the current millage rate for violators.

Blighted properties that meet compliance after that would be eligible for a millage rate reduction for up to two years.

Joe Glancy, creator of the Sprayberry Crossing Action Facebook group that’s been pushing for a solution, wrote that while the letter from the county represents “a victory for our community and another step in the right direction. . . . I’m sure most of you also know, this is hardly the end.”

The citizens’ group has been frustrated by what it has said is a lack of cooperation from the property owners. Glancy urged his group to “to turn up the heat on the ownership group and county to move this process forward.”

The group has scheduled a community meeting on March 21 at Sprayberry High School.

We’re getting in touch with the property owner and will post a response if and when we get it.

 

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