Proposed Medical Office Concerns Some in Oglethorpe Avenue Neighborhood in Athens

A medical office is proposed for a tract of land near Forest Heights Baptist Church, but this proposal doesn't sit well with some of those whose children attend nearby Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School.

"It's not like Oglethorpe is a purely residential street, because it's not," said Athens Clarke County planner Bruce Lonnee. "But this would be a shift, for sure."

Farther north on the eastern side of Oglethorpe are the elementary school, Rutland, another school, medical offices and then Transmetropolitan and Hendershot's. On the western side heading north are a dentist's office and a counseling center and gas station.

Before anything can be built in the bamboo area between the church and Breckinridge Lane, there would have to be zoning change, Lonnee said. The planning commission will consider the issue in March.

According to a post on a PTA Facebook page, there will be meeting on Wednesday at 5:30pm at Hendershot's to discuss the issue with ACC Commissioner Jerry NeSmith. He spent years on the planning commission before he was elected to the commission last fall.

Allowing the medical building, the Facebook post says, "would alter the physical and aesthetic quality of this part of the neighborhood."

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