Gwinnett commissioners unanimously deny request for second utility shelter on Annistown Road

The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously March 25 to deny a request to revise existing zoning conditions to allow a second utility transmission facility (an inline amplification, or ILA, shelter) at 4317 Annistown Road in District 2.

Planning staff and the county planning commission had recommended denial, citing the site’s designation as Neighborhood Traditional in the Unified Plan and saying the proposal would “further commercialize the subject site and alter the residential character of the area.” A motion to follow the planning department recommendation and deny CIC-2025280 was made on the record by Commissioner Koo and carried unanimously.

The applicant’s consultant, civil engineer Dustin Walters Poff of AECOM, told commissioners the proposed facility would be a precast ILA shelter on a roughly 95-by-95-foot gravel pad with an emergency backup generator. He said the equipment boosts and retransmits fiber-optic signals along an existing fiber route on Annistown Road and that an existing, similar facility already operates on the property under different ownership. Poff said routine visits to the site would be limited — for example, “F‑150 trucks” on a quarterly maintenance schedule — and that the company conducted a noise study: modelled increases of about 2–3 decibels at nearby rear-yard properties from typical equipment operation and an estimated 14–15 decibel increase only if the emergency generator ran during a sustained power outage.

Planning staff member Michelle McCartell warned the proposed additional utility use sits roughly 120 feet from the nearest residence, would require substantial clearing of existing vegetation that currently provides screening, and does not conform to the Unified Plan’s Neighborhood Traditional policy for single-family residential areas. The board also heard from the public participation process and a January meeting where neighbors raised concerns about noise and residential impacts.

Following discussion, the board voted to deny CIC-2025280. The denial leaves the site’s prior special-use conditions unchanged.

Ending: The denial was recorded as unanimous on the meeting minutes; no follow-up direction to staff was recorded during the public hearing. If the applicant seeks further action, it would require a new application or an appeal through established county procedures.