NEWTON COUNTY – Despite its fancy name, the Newton County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted against “Project Paradise.”

The commissioners met for nearly 4.5 hours on Tuesday, where one of the main discussion points was consideration to rezone 175 acres on Old Atlanta Highway from residential to light industrial. 

The owners of the property, Doris and Allen George Fuller, reportedly intended to sell the land to Euphoric Development. Euphoric Development is an Atlanta-based development company that specializes in industrial builds. The company’s website flaunts several large-scale buildings throughout the state of Georgia including distribution centers, e-commerce/logistic facilities and more. The company is a contract developer and would not occupy the building for themselves.

Plans for the “Project Paradise” site in Newton County included a three-building industrial warehouse site totaling 1,940,000 square feet, according to a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) Filing with the Department of Community Affairs.

Euphoric Development Principal Austin Brannen spoke during the public hearing portion of the meeting, where he outlined how his development group found the potential property.

“We found this property because of a couple things: The future land use map was industrial for this property, it’s located in an industrial area,” Brannen said. “We found this property also because it has fairly quick access to the interstate. When we look for properties, we try to find properties that are on the interstate that don’t disturb much residential — or if any — and this one checked the boxes for our company.”

Brannen added that the project was set to bring “seven figures” in property tax revenue for Newton County, and could add up to 1,000 jobs.

But potential problems persisted for this project.

One concern for the project was the amount of traffic that it could bring in. A traffic study indicated that Hawkins Drive – a small road in the area – would need improvements to accommodate the site.

Vice President of Euphoric Development Hunter Himes said that the group was working on making a plan to provide improvements to Hawkins Drive.

“We did complete a traffic study by A&R engineering,” Himes said. “They did recommend improvements to Hawkins Drive, which we are coordinating.”

But residents who live near the area were not buying it.

“The main thing [is that] it's just too much traffic already, and it’s dangerous right now,” said Eddie Goddard, who lives near the proposed site.

“Hawkins Drive, all those little streets that go across the railroad tracks…there’s no need for this kind of building in my opinion,” said Shirley Mayo, who lives a half-mile from the site. “And I terribly, very much oppose it being there.”

Another concern was the potential runoff from the site into the nearby Yellow River. The DRI report cited concerns that the building could disrupt the natural flow of water and could even pollute the water if not planned properly.

Himes told the board that they would use detention ponds and other means to meet the state of Georgia’s hefty runoff reduction requirements.

Perhaps the biggest concern, however, was the lack of tenants lined up for the building.

Brannen previously told The Covington News that they did not have a tenant lined up for the site on March 13. This was confirmed by Himes at Tuesday’s meeting. 

“We’re building these as speculative buildings, looking to attract a wide range of companies,” Himes said. “We don’t know who will be going in here.”

This particularly caught the ire of District 4 Commissioner J.C. Henderson.

“With this plan, it’s a danger, I think, to our water system,” Henderson said. “And this warehouse building, who knows what they may house it. We don’t know. I don’t know.”

With the looming possibility that the developer could lease the building at their discretion and without county oversight, Henderson made the motion to deny the project, which carried 5-0.