GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A developer wants to build 280 homes next to Yellow River Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Gwinnett County community that has supported the sanctuary for 40 years has questions.
Middleburg Communities is asking Gwinnett County to rezone nearly 30 acres along Stone Mountain Highway near Lilburn for a mixed-residential development including single-family homes, duplexes and townhomes. The property sits along the Yellow River, a few hundred feet from the fence line of Yellow River Wildlife Sanctuary.
Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson talked to Jonathan Ordway, who has owned the sanctuary for seven years. Ordway said he has concerns about noise, security and what hundreds of new neighbors would mean for the 150 animals in his care, including bears, wolves, spider monkeys and river otters.
“We’ve been rescuing animals, educating kids, bringing families together,” Ordway said. “Community is the heart of what this establishment’s about, and so we want to stick around here for as long as possible.”
Ordway’s deeper concern is about fit. The surrounding area is zoned commercial and industrial, and he says the proposal does not belong there.
“They’re building an island of residential in the sea of commercial and industrial on a zoo,” he said. “Sound and noise and all that kind of stuff, it would disturb a lot of animals and it’s not good for the welfare at all.”
The developer’s attorneys, in a filing with the county, describe the property as a designated “high opportunity area” for redevelopment and cite a county goal of adding 3,500 housing units to the area.
Clint Murphy, the sanctuary’s zoological curator, said the concerns extend beyond the animals in cages. Runoff from new rooftops and parking lots could flow into the Yellow River, he said, threatening the fish, owls, and deer along its banks.
“Doing whatever we can do now to help protect those resources is long-term the health of Gwinnett County,” he said.
Ordway said this is the first time a development has been proposed on that land. The original plan for the site called for mixed commercial and light residential, not high-density housing alone.
Mark Wilson chairs the Yellow River Water Trail, a nonprofit that monitors the river. He said development this close means more runoff and flooding into an already stressed waterway.
“You’ve got to have a balance, especially with a property as valuable and as unique as the sanctuary here,” Wilson said.
Ordway is asking supporters to show up when he meets the developer for the first time at a community meeting Monday at 6 p.m. at MC3 Church.
“Please come out and support us. We need your help,” Ordway said.
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